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1  THE  GROWTH  OF  THE 
BRITISH  EMPIRE 


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THE  GROWTH  OF  THE 
BRITISH  EMPIRE 


BY 


P.  H.  and  A.   C.    KERR 


WITH  4  COLOURED  ILLUSTRATIONS,  4  COLOURED  MAPS 
AND  59  MAPS  AND  OTHER  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  IMPRESSION 


LONGMANS,    GREEN    AND    CO. 

39    PATERNOSTER   ROW,    LONDON 
NEW  YORK,  BOMBAY,  AND  CALCUTTA 

1911 

All  rights  reserved 


T/io\ 
U 

HISTORH 


CONTENTS 

PART   I 
PERIOD   OF  TRAINING 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  The   British   Empire.      Frontispiece  (Map 

of  Empire)      .         .  ...  1 

II.  The  Age  of  Discovery.    (See  Map  on  p.  7)         5 

III.  The  Portuguese  and  Spanish  Discoveries. 

(See  Maps  on  pp.   13,  15)  .         .10 

IV.  England  and  the  New  World.     (See  i^Eap 

on  p.  20) 17 

V.  The  English  Explorers  and  the  War  with 

Spain.     (See  Maps  on  pp.  15,  20)          .  23 

VI.  The  Sea-Dogs.     (See  Map  on  p.   15)           .  29 

VII.  Results  of  the  Age  of  Discovery     .         .  34 

Table  of  Dates 38 

PART  II 

PERIOD   OF   COLONISATION  BY  SETTLEMENT 
SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY 

VIII.  England's  First  Colonies  ....       39 

IX.  The    American    Colonies.      (See    Map   on 

p.  71)     .         .         .         .         .         .         .44 

X.  The    Expansion   of   British   Trade.     (See 

Map  facing  p.  65) 49 

259829 


IV  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGK 

XI.  War  with  the  Dutch        ....  54 
XII.  Summary    of    the    Second    Period.      (See 

Map  facing  p.  65) 58 

Table  of  Dates  ...  62 


PART   III 

PERIOD   OF   COLONISATION   BY   CONQUEST 
EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

XIII.  The   Beginning    of    the    First    Struggle 

with  France.     (See  Maps  on  pp.  71,  93)       64 
XIY.  The  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession.     (See 

Map  on  p.  71) 68 

XY.  Second    Struggle    between    France    and 

England 74 

XYI.  Seven  Years'  War  in  America.    (See  Map 

on  p.  93) 80 

XYII.  The  War  in  India.     (See  Map  on  p.  178)    .       85 
XYIII.  The  American  Revolt.     (See  Map  on  p.  71)       92 
XIX.  The  Third  Struggle  against  France.    (See 
Map  on  p.  71    for  American  War;    see 
Map  on  p.  20   for  European  War ;    see 
Map  on  p.   178  for  Indian  War)   .  .       98 

XX.  The  End  of  the  Third  Struggle  against 

France 104 

XXI.  The  Final  Struggle  against  France.    (See 

Map  on  p.  20) 110 

XXII.  The  War  with  Napoleon.      (See  Map  on 

p.  20) 116 

XXIII.  Summary  of  the  Third  Period.    (See  Map 

facing  p.  128) 122 

Table  of  Dates 125 


CONTENTS 


PART    IV 
PERIOD   OF   INTERNAL   DEVELOPMENT 

CHAP.  PAGE 

XXIV.  Britain     in    the     Nineteenth     Century. 

(See  Map  facing  p.  128)         .  .     128 

XXV.  The  Expansion  of  Canada         .         .         .133 
XXVI.  The  Federation  op  Canada.    (See  Map  on 

p.  138) 137 

XXVII.  The  Colonisation  of  Australia         .         .144 
XXVIII.  The  Federation  of  Australia.     (See  Map 

on  p.   151) 150 

XXIX.  The  Growth  of  South  Africa  .         .156 

XXX.  The  Union  of  South  Africa.     (See  Map 

on  p.   163) 162 

XXXI.  The  Story  of  New  Zealand.      (See  Map 

on  p.  171) 170 

XXXII.  India  in  the  Nineteenth  Century.     (See 

Map  on  p.  178) 177 

XXXIII.  Other  British  Possessions.    (See  Maps  on 

pp.   186,  189,  and  facing  p.   128)            .     184 
Table  of  Dates 190 

XXXIV.  The  British  Empire  To-day.     Plan  showing 

size  of  Countries  of  the  Empire  ;  Plan 
showing  Population  of  Countries  of  the 
Empire ;  Plan  showing  Trade  of  the 
Empire.  Plans  comparing  the  Five  Great 
Powers.     (See  Map  on  p.   196)      .  .192 

XXXV.  The  Future  of  the  Empire       .         .         .     200 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


COLOURED  MAPS 


PAGE 


The  World,  showing  the  British  Empire  in  1911    .         Frontispiece 

The  World  in  1700 Facing       65 

The  World  in  1815 ,,128 

The  Possessions  of  the  Great  Powers  in  1900  .         .  ,,         145 

PICTURES  IN  COLOUR 

The  Spanish  Armada  in  the  English  Channel         .         .       Facing       24 
Reduced  from  Longmans'  "  Historical  Wall  Pictures  " 
by  Henry  J.  Ford 

The  Death  of  Wolf e  before  Quebec  ....  ,,  80 

Reduced  from  Longmans'  "  Historical  Wall  Pictures  " 
by  Henry  J.  Ford 

The  Battle  of  Trafalgar ,,113 

Reduced  from  Longmans'  "  Historical  Wall  Pictures  " 
by  Henry  J.  Ford 

Early  Dutch  Settlers  at  the  Cape    ...  .  „         160 

From  a  Drawing  by  Lancelot  Speed 

MAPS  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  BLACK  AND  WHITE 

Map :  The  World  before  the  Age  of  Discovery        ....         7 

Vasco  da  Gama 11 

The  Departure  of  Columbus  from  Palos  .         .         .         .         .12 

Map  of  Columbus's  Voyages .13 

Map  :  The  World  at  the  End  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  .         .       15 

Map :  England  and  Western  Europe  at  the  End  of  the  Sixteenth 

Century 20 

Sir  Martin  Frobisher 25 

From  a  Picture  belonging  to  the  Earl  of  Carlisle 

Hawkins,  Drake,  and  Cavendish 27 

Drake  Captures  a  Spanish  Treasure  Ship 31 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh 41 

vi 


ILLUSTRATIONS  vn 

PAGE 

The  "Mayflower" 47 

Fort  William 51 

Map  :  America  after  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  1713  ...       71 

William  Dampier 72 

The  Right  Hon.  William  Pitt,  Paymaster  of  the  Forces,  after- 
wards Earl  of  Chatham 77 

From  a  Painting  by  Hoare 
The  Defeat  of  Part  of  the  French  Fleet,  collected  for  the  Invasion 
of  England,  by  Admiral  Boscawen,  off  Cape  Lagos  in  Portugal, 

August  1759 79 

From  a  Painting  by  R.  Paton 

General  Wolfe 83 

From,  the  Painting  by  Schaak  in  the  National  Portrait 
Gallery 

Joseph  Dupleix 86 

Lord  Clive 88 

From  an  Engraving  by  G.  Stodart  of  the  Painting  by  N. 
Dana,  R.A. 

"Map  :  America  after  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  1763       ....       93 
One  of  the  Stamps  as  appointed  to  be  used  under  George  Gren- 
ville's  Stamp  Act  of  1765  for  the  purpose  of  raising  Taxes  in 

America 95 

George  Washington 97 

The  Siege  of  Gibraltar,  1781 100 

From  a  Contemporary  Print 

Warren  Hastings 103 

From  an  Engramng  by  C.  J.  Tomklns 

Captain  Cook 108 

William  Pitt  the  Younger Ill 

Lord  Nelson 113 

From   the   Picture  by   Abbot   in   the   National   Portrait 
Gallery 

The  Union  Jack  in  use  since  1801 115 

Napoleon's  Medal  struck  to  commemorate  the  Invasion  of  Eng- 
land which  never  took  place 117 

The  "Victory" *..    ,         .119 

The  Duke  of  Wellington 120 

Map :  The  Dominion  of  Canada  and  Newfoundland       .         .         .  138 

Winnipeg,  the  Capital  of  Manitoba 140 


Vlli  .  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGK 

Ploughing,  Hanna's  Farm :  Harvesting  :  Farm  in  the  Far  West   .  142 

The  First  Settlement  at  Adelaide,  1836 146 

Robert  O'Hara  Burke  and  William  John  Wills       .         .         .         .148 

Map :  The  Commonwealth  of  Australia 151 

Wool-Sorting 152 

Johan  van  Riebeek 157 

Cape  Town 159 

From  a  Photograph  by  T.  D.  Ravenscro/t 

Map:  South  Africa 163 

Sir  Bartle  Frere 164 

From  a  Photograph  by  Elliott  <k  Fry 

Right  Hon.  Cecil  Rhodes 166 

From  a  Photograph  by  W.  &  D.  Downey,  London 

Cecil  Rhodes's  Grave  on  the  Matoppos 167 

From  a  Photograph  by  T.  D.  Ravenscroft 

Simon's  Town  Bay 169 

From  a  Photograph  by  T.  D.  Ravenscroft 

Map  :  The  Dominion  of  New  Zealand    .....         .  171 

Sir  George  Grey 173 

The  Maori  King .         .174 

A  Maori  Village 175 

Map  of  India  to  illustrate  the  English  Occupation  .         .         .178 

The  Suez  Canal 185 

Sketch  Map  of  the  Nile  Basin 186 

Map  of  the  World  showing  British  Naval  Dockyards  and  Coaling 

Stations  and  All-British  Cable  Lines 189 

Diagram  showing  the  relative  Sizes  of  the  different  Countries 

composing  the  British  Empire 193 

Diagram    showing    the    relative    Populations   of    the    different 

Countries  composing  the  British  Empire          ....  194 
Diagram  showing  the  Trade  of  the  British  Empire  in  1908   .         .195 

Map  of  the  Principal  Trade  Routes  of  the  World  ....  196 
Diagrams  showing  (i.)  the  Areas,  (ii.)  the  Populations  (white  and 

coloured),  (iii.)  the  Populations  (white   only)   of  the  Five 

Great  Empires  of  the  World 198 

Diagram  showing  the  Expenditure  on  Defence  with  the  Popula- 
tions of  the  Five  Great  Powers  of  the  World         .         .         .199 


THE   GROWTH   OF   THE 
BRITISH   EMPIRE 

PART   I 

PERIOD   OF  TRAINING 

CHAPTER   I 

THE   BRITISH  EMPIRE 

"  The  land  we  from  our  fathers  had  in  trust, 
And  to  our  children  will  transmit  or  die  : 
This  is  our  maxim,  this  our  piety ; 
And  God  and  nature  say  that  it  is  just." 

— Wordsworth. 

1.  We  hear  a  great  deal  nowadays  about  the  British 
Empire ;  how  great  it  is,  how  it  is  spread  all  over 
the  face  of  the  world,  so  that  the  sun  is  always 
shining  on  some  part  of  it,  and  we  feel  very  proud 
of  belonging  to  it.  But  do  we  ever  stop  to  think 
what  we  really  mean  by  it  ?  What  is  the  British 
Empire  ?  What  is  it  made  up  of,  and  how  did  it 
ever  come  to  be  ?  What  is  it  going  to  be  in  the 
future  ?  We  know  a  little  about  it ;  we  know  that 
it  consists  of  a  lot  of  different  countries  in  different 
parts  of  the  world,  and  that  they  are  all  joined  in 
some  way  or  another,  and  all  have  the  same  king. 
But   do   we  know  which   are  the  countries  that   are 

A  2 


?;,  TEE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

joined  together,  or  how  they  came  to  be  joined,  or 
what  it  is  that  keeps  them  together  now  ?  All  these 
things  we  must  know,  if  we  are  to  understand  about 
the  British  Empire. 

2.  Look  at  the  map  at  the  beginning  of  the  book 
and  you  will  see  that  a  large  part  of  it  is  painted  red ; 
that  is  the  British  Empire.  There  is  huge  Canada; 
there  is  South  Africa  ;  there  is  Australia,  a  continent 
in  herself,  and  close  beside  her  New  Zealand ;  there 
is  India,  and  there  are  many  other  countries,  and 
islands  more  than  you  can  count ;  and  in  the  middle 
is  tiny  England,  which  is  the  Mother-country  of  them 
all.  They  are  all  one  big  family.  England  is  the 
Mother-country  and  they  are  her  children,  who  are 
all  around  her,  as  she  sits  on  her  throne  in  the  middle 
of  the  sea. 

3.  You  know  how,  in  a  real  family,  the  children  are 
all  different ;  some  are  big  and  old  and  like  to  walk  by 
themselves,  and  some  are  still  small  and  want  to  hold 
their  mother's  hand.  So  it  is  with  the  Empire.  Some 
of  England's  children  are  quite  grown  up  and  can 
manage  their  own  affairs,  and  some  of  them  she  still 
holds  by  the  hand ;  but  they  are  all  fond  of  their 
Mother  and  of  each  other,  and  when  danger  threatens 
any  one  of  them,  they  all  have  to  stand  together  to 
ward  it  off.  The  danger  comes  from  the  other  parts 
of  the  map  that  are  not  painted  red,  for  there  foreign 
peoples  live  who  have  armies  and  navies  of  their  own 
which  they  can  use  to  attack  the  Empire. 

4.  We  have  said  that  all  the  countries  of  the  Empire 
are  different.  Now  we  are  not  going  to  try  to  under- 
stand all  the  differences,  for  there  are  so  many  that 


THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE  3 

we  should  only  get  muddled,  but  there  is  one  we  must 
notice,  for  it  divides  the  countries  into  two  big  sets. 
Look  at  the  map  at  the  beginning,  and  you  will  see  that 
some  of  the  red  painted  places  are  at  the  top,  and  some 
at  the  bottom,  and  some  in  the  middle,  of  the  page. 
You  know  that  in  the  middle  of  the  map  is  the  Equator, 
and  that  places  in  the  Tropics,  as  the  parts  of  the  world 
near  the  Equator  are  called,  are  generally  far  too  hot 
and  unhealthy  for  white  people,  so  that  only  black 
and  brown  people  can  live  in  them  ;  and  you  know  too 
that  at  the  very  top  and  bottom  of  the  map  are  the 
Poles  and  the  Arctic  regions,  where  nobody  can  live 
at  all.  But  in  between  the  two  Arctic  circles  and 
the  Tropics  are  the  temperate  zones,  where  the  climate 
is  good  and  white  people  can  live  and  work  and  make 
their  homes. 

5.  Now  look  at  the  countries  painted  red  which  lie 
within  these  healthy  temperate  zones.  In  the  northern 
half  of  the  map  are  the  British  Isles — the  heart  of  the 
Empire — which  are  altogether  in  the  temperate  zone. 
Then  comes  Canada,  so  large  that  a  great  part  of  it 
stretches  up  into  the  Arctic  regions,  and  Newfoundland 
close  beside  it.  In  the  south  temperate  zone  you 
will  find  Australia  and  South  Africa,  though  parts  of 
both  of  them  stretch  up  into  the  Tropics.  And,  lastly, 
there  is  New  Zealand,  which,  like  the  British  Isles,  is 
altogether  in  the  temperate  zone.  These  five  countries 
are  the  most  important  parts  of  the  Empire.  England, 
as  you  know,  is  the  Mother-country,  and  Canada,  Sbuth 
Africa,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand  are  the  Dominions, 
as  her  grown-up  daughters  are  called.  They  all  lie 
mostly  in  the  temperate  zones,  and  are  inhabited  by 


4     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

large  numbers  of  white  people,  and  they  are  all  self- 
governing  states.  That  is  to  say,  they  conduct  their 
own  affairs  in  their  own  way,  which,  as  we  shall  see, 
the  other  parts  of  the  Empire  are  not  allowed  to  do. 
But  it  is  England  who  manages  the  outside  affairs  of 
the  whole  Empire  and  its  dealings  with  foreign  nations, 
because  she  is  the  strongest,  and  she  pays  nearly  all  the 
cost  of  the  army  and  navy  which  defend  it. 

6.  The  other  parts  of  the  Empire,  except  some  little 
islands,  lie  inside  the  Tropics,  where  the  climate  is  bad 
for  white-men.  They  are  mostly  inhabited  by  black  and 
brown  people,  who  are  still  uncivilised,  or  who  are  not 
able  to  govern  their  own  countries  with  peace  and 
justice.  These  countries  are  called  Dependencies,  be- 
cause they  depend  for  protection  and  good  government 
on  the  self-governing  states.  Only  a  few  white  people 
live  in  them,  as  missionaries  or  officials  of  the  Govern- 
ment, or  traders  and  engineers,  or  foremen  on  railways 
and  harbours.  The  chief  Dependencies  can  be  divided 
into  three  groups.  In  the  first  group  are  India  (a  great 
country,  with  so  many  inhabitants  that  they  make  up 
one-sixth  of  all  the  people  in  the  world),  the  island 
of  Ceylon,  and  the  Malay  Peninsula  in  Asia.  In  the 
second  group  are  Egypt 1  and  the  Sudan  along  the 
Nile,  Uganda,  British  East  Africa,  and  Nigeria,  in 
Africa;  and  in  the  third  group  are  the  West  Indies 
and  Guiana.  Besides  these  there  are  hundreds  of 
islands  and  smaller  pieces  of  land  scattered  over 
the  whole  world,  but  we  cannot  give  all  their  names 
here.     All   these  wide   lands   belong   to  England   and 

1  Egypt  is  under  British  rule,  but  is  not  part  of  the  Empire.     (See 
Chapter  XXXIII.) 


THE   AGE   OF   DISCOVERY  5 

her  four  grown-up  Dominions,  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
are  the  self-governing  partners  in  the  Empire;  and 
in  return,  these  partners  have  to  see  that  they  are 
properly  and  justly  governed,  and  safe  from  the  attack 
of  any  enemy. 

7.  So  we  see  that  the  British  Empire  is  a  big  family 
of  peoples  and  states,  who  have  all  the  same  kind  of 
laws  and  government,  and  the  same  army  and  navy, 
who  are  all  united  under  one  king,  and  who  proudly 
fly  the  same  flag  in  their  different  parts  of  the  earth. 
We  also  see  that  the"  ^countries  that  make  up  the 
Empire  are  divided  into  two  sets.  The  first  and  most 
important  set  consists  of  the  healthy  countries  in  the 
temperate  zones,  where  white  people  can  live  and 
work  and  can  manage  their  own  affairs,  and  these 
are  called  the  self-governing  Dominions.  The  second 
set  consists  of  the  countries  in  the  tropical  zone,  which 
are  unhealthy  for  white  men,  and  are  the  homes  of 
black  and  brown  peoples  who  cannot  govern  them- 
selves, and  so  have  to  be  governed  by  white  men, 
and  these  are  called  Dependencies* 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  AGE   OF  DISCOVERY 

1.  We  have  now  found  out  something  about  what  we 
mean  when  we  talk  of  the  British  Empire.  We  have 
learnt  that  it  is  a  great  family  of  States,  made  up 
of  five  self-governing  peoples — England,  the  Mother- 
country,    and    her    grown-up    daughter    Dominions — 


6     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

and  a  great  number  of  dependent  black  and  brown 
races,  who  are  governed  and  protected  by  the  white 
people.  This  great  Empire  did  not  come  into  being  all 
at  once.  It  was  very  small  to  begin  with,  but  it  gradually 
grew  larger  and  greater,  until  to-day  it  covers  one-fifth 
of  all  the  land  on  the  globe,  and  contains  nearly  one 
quarter  of  the  human  race,  and  is  the  greatest  power  in 
all  the  world. 

2.  If  we  are  to  understand  properly  how  the  Empire 
was  built  up  we  must  begin  by  going  back  a  long  way 
in  history,  to  the  time,  five  hundred  years  ago,  when 
England  had  no  possessions  beyond  the  sea,  and  when 
America,  South  Africa,  and  Australia  had  not  even 
been  heard  of.  At  that  time  people  only  knew  about 
Europe,  and  the  north  of  Africa,  and  Asia.  They  had  no 
idea  that  the  earth  was  round,  or  that  there  were  great 
continents  full  of  gold  and  silver,  corn  and  wood,  coal  and 
iron,  and  other  riches  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe.  They 
had  no  railways  to  help  them  to  move  about,  or  news- 
papers and  telegraphs  to  bring  news  of  foreign  countries, 
and  even  the  roads  were  bad  and  dangerous,  because  of 
robbers  and  brigands.  Their  ships,  too,  were  only  tiny 
cockle-shells  driven  headlong  before  the  wind,  and 
often  swallowed  up  by  the  waves  or  dashed  to  pieces 
on  the  rocks.  So  that  travel,  which  is  easy  enough 
now  when  we  have  express  trains  and  fast  steamers, 
and  fine  hotels  and  news  of  what  is  going  on  at  home 
at  every  stopping-place,  was  difficult  and  dangerous 
then,  and  naturally  people  were  inclined  to  stay  at 
home. 

3.  But  about  this  time,  five  hundred  years  ago, 
the  people  of  Europe  seemed  to  wake  up.     They  were 


8     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

gradually  becoming  richer,  and  as  their  riches  grew 
their  wants  grew  too.  They  wished  to  make  their 
houses  more  comfortable,  and  their  clothes  more 
beautiful,  and  their  feasts  more  splendid ;  so  a  great 
demand  arose  for  gorgeous  stuffs,  and  gold,  and  jewels, 
and  all  sorts  of  fruits  and  spices  which  were  not  to 
be  found  in  their  own  countries,  but  had  to  be 
brought  from  other  lands  far  away.  Then  inventions 
and  discoveries  were  made.  People  learnt  that 
the  earth  was  round,  and  that  if  you  only  travelled 
long  enough  in  one  direction  you  would  come  back 
to  the  place  you  started  from.  Another  famous 
discovery  was  the  mariner's  compass,  which  told 
the  sailors  how  to  guide  their  ships,  so  that  they  no 
longer  had  to  creep  along  the  shore,  but  could  ven- 
ture boldly  out  across  the  ocean.  Then  people  began 
to  build  bigger  ships,  and  sailors  and  merchants  set 
forth  in  them  to  bring  back  the  stuffs,  and  fruits,  and 
jewels,  for  which  the  people  of  Europe  were  ready  to 
pay  high  prices. 

4.  Most  of  these  valuable  articles  were  brought  from 
the  far-away  countries  of  the  East,  like  India  and 
China.  There  had  always  been  a  good  deal  of  trade 
between  Europe  and  the  countries  of  Asia,  and  for 
some  time  it  had  been  rapidly  increasing.  As  you  will 
see  on  the  map,  there  were  three  or  four  great  trade 
routes  by  which  the  merchants  travelled  backwards 
and  forwards.  But  these  were  difficult  and  dangerous, 
and  the  merchants  were  anxious  to  find  new  and  safer 
roads.  About  this  time  too  (1450)  a  fierce  people  called 
the  Ottoman  Turks  rose  up,  who  hated  the  Christians, 
and  attacked  them  and  took  their  city  of  Constantinople. 


THE   AGE   OF   DISCOVERY  9 

The  Turks  made  the  journey  to  the  East  by  the  old  routes 
even  more  dangerous.  So  the  merchants  began  to 
promise  great  rewards  to  any  one  who  could  find  a  new 
way  to  India  and  China,  or  discover  new  countries  from 
which  they  could  obtain  their  goods.  These  promises 
naturally  aroused  the  men  who  loved  an  exciting,  ad- 
venturous, roving  life,  and  they  all  began  to  think  of 
making  their  fortunes  by  exploration.  So  off  they 
set  with  their  new  compasses  and  their  new  ships  on 
voyages  of  discovery — some  to  find  new  lands,  some  to 
find  new  ways  to  the  old  ones;  and  bit  by  bit  they 
explored  the  whole  face  of  the  world,  till  they  could 
draw  the  map  very  much  as  we  know  it  now. 

5.  The  first  people  to  be  stirred  by  the  new  spirit  of 
adventure,  and  to  set  out  on  these  voyages,  were  the 
Portuguese  and  the  Spaniards.  As  you  can  see  on  the 
map,  Portugal  and  Spain  are  on  the  very  outside  corner 
of  Europe,  so  it  was  natural  that  they  should  lead  the 
way  out  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  down  the  coast 
of  Africa.  Besides,  when  the  old  trade  routes  were 
blocked,  the  ships  which  had  been  carrying  goods  over 
the  Mediterranean  from  the  East  to  Italy,  France,  and 
Spain,  had  nothing  to  carry  so  long  as  they  remained  in 
the  Mediterranean,  and  they  too  had  to  sail  out  of  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar,  and  make  the  Portuguese  and 
Spanish  ports  the  starting-places  for  their  new  expe- 
ditions. 

6.  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal  was  the  first  powerful 
man  to  set  about  exploring  the  world.  His  great  object 
was  to  discover  new  lands  for  Portugal,  and  to  send 
missionaries  to  convert  the  heathen  and  make  them 
Christians.     Many  expeditions  were  sent  out  by  Prince 


10     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

Henry,  and  though  by  1460,  when  he  died,  they  had 
not  made  any  great  discoveries,  he  had  set  the  example 
for  others  to  follow. 

7.  The  period  when  all  this  took  place  lasted  about 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  from  1450  till  nearly  1600, 
and  it  is  called  the  Age  of  Discovery.  We  will  now  see 
how,  by  degrees,  the  world  was  explored,  and  what  part 
each  of  the  different  nations  took  in  the  new  discoveries. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   PORTUGUESE   AND  SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 

1.  After  the  Turks  had  closed  the  old  route  to 
the  Far  East  through  Asia,  the  Portuguese  began  to 
work  hard  to  find  a  new  road  to  India  by  sea.  To 
begin  with,  they  explored  down  the  coast  of  Africa. 
In  I486  Bartholomew  Diaz  had  sailed  as  far  South 
as  the  Cape,  which  he  named  the  Cape  of  Storms. 
Eleven  years  later  Vasco  da  Gama  passed  this  Cape 
once  more,  and  sailed  on  and  On,  until  at  last  he 
reached  India,  and  so  found  the  new  way  to  the 
East  for  which  everybody  had  been  anxiously  waiting. 
People  were  so  delighted  that  the  Cape  of  Storms  was 
renamed  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  South  Africa  is  re- 
minded of  that  famous  voyage  by  some  of  her  other 
names  as  well.  Natal  was  given  its  name  by  Vasco  da 
Gama,  who  passed  it  on  Christmas  Day.  Algoa  Bay 
(Port  Elizabeth)  means  the  stopping-place  on  the  way 
to  Goa,  and  Delagoa  means  the  stopping-place  on  the 


PORTUGUESE   AND   SPANISH   DISCOVERIES     11 


way  from  Goa ;  for  Goa  was  the  first  possession  of  the 
Portuguese  in  India,  and  it  still  belongs  to  them. 

2.  It  was  not  long  before  the  Spaniards  began  to  be 
stirred  by  the  fever  of  exploration.  They  too  wanted 
to  reach  the  Indies, 
but,  as  the  Portu- 
guese had  gone  East, 
they  started  out  in 
the  other  direction. 
Christopher  Colum- 
bus, a  sailor  from 
Genoa,  said  that  if 
the  world  was  round, 
it  ought  to  be  just  as 
easy  to  reach  the 
Indies  by  going  West 
as  by  going  East,  and 
he  was  quite  sure 
that  if  somebody 
bold  enough  sailed 
due  West  from  Spain 
he  would  reach  them. 
For  a  long  time  no 
one  would  listen  to 
him  or  give  him 
ships  ;  but  he  was  so 
certain  that  he  was 

right  that  he  would  not  give  up,  and  at  last  he  per- 
suaded the  King  of  Spain  to  help  him,  and  on  August  3, 
1492,  six  years  after  Diaz  had  discovered  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  he  joyfully  set  sail.  On  and  on  he  went  for 
seventy  days,  and  still  there  was  no  sign  of  land.     His 


12     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

crew  became  disheartened,  and  threatened  to  throw  him 
overboard  and  go  back  to  Spain  ;  but  he  begged  them  to 
persevere  for  a  few  days  more,  and  one  morning,  when 
they  looked  out,  there  was  the  land  in  front  of  them. 
You  can  imagine  their  delight.  They  found  they  had 
reached  a  group  of  islands.     Columbus  thought  they 


The  Departure  op  Columbus  from  Palos 


were  part  of  India,  and  called  the  islands  the  Indies, 
and  went  back  to  Spain  with  the  news.  Later  on 
he  made  another  voyage  and  landed  in  America,  and 
found  that  instead  of  reaching  India  he  had  discovered 
a  huge  new  continent  of  which  he  had  never  dreamt. 
So  the  islands  he  had  first  found  were  renamed  the 
West  Indies,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  real  Indies 
in  the  East.     Columbus  made  several  other  voyages,  in 


PORTUGUESE   AND   SPANISH    DISCOVERIES     13 

the  course  of  which  he  landed  in  Jamaica,  and  Trinidad, 
and  at  different  places  on  the  coast  of  America.  He 
died  in  1506. 

3.  So  to  the  Portuguese  belongs  the  credit  of 
having  discovered  South  Africa,  and  of  having  reached 
India  by  sea,  and  to  the  Spaniards  belongs  the  credit 


Map  of  Columbus's  Voyages 


of  having  discovered  America.  After  the  news  of  .the 
success  of  Bartholomew  Diaz,  Vasco  da  Gama,  and 
Christopher  Columbus  had  been  spread  about,  many 
other  Portuguese  and  Spaniards  began  to  set  forth  on 
voyages  of  discovery  and  adventure.  The  later  Por- 
tuguese explorers  followed  the  example  of  Columbus, 
and  instead  of  sailing-  along-  the  coast  of  Africa  struck 
boldly  across  the  Atlantic.     In  1500  they  visited  Brazil, 


14     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE    BRITISH   EMPIRE 

and  in  the  next  year  Corte  Real  sailed  all  the  way  along 
the  eastern  coast  of  North  America ;  while  in  1520, 
Magellan  and  his  companions  actually  sailed  round 
the  world.  They  followed  down  the  eastern  coast  of 
South  America,  passed  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan 
at  the  southernmost  point,  which  they  named  after 
their  captain,  crossed  the  Pacific  to  the  East  Indian 
Islands,  like  Borneo  and  the  Philippines,  where  Magellan 
was  killed  in  a  fight  with  the  natives,  and  from  there 
the  expedition  sailed  across  the  Indian  Ocean  to  the 
Cape,  and  so  reached  Portugal  again  up  the  west  coast 
of  Africa.  The  voyage  took  nearly  three  years,  and 
when  we  remember  the  tiny  ships  they  sailed  in,  and 
that  they  had  no  maps  to  guide  them  and  show  them 
when  they  were  near  rocks  or  currents,  or  where  they 
could  find  ports  to  get  fresh  food  and  water,  we  may 
well  think  it  was  one  of  the  most  wonderful  adventures 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  fame  of  this  adven- 
ture belongs  to  both  Spain  and  Portugal,  for  though 
Magellan  was  a  Portuguese,  it  was  the  Spanish  king 
who  gave  him  the  ships  and  money  for  the  expedition. 
4.  The  Portuguese  went  on  exploring  and  looking 
for  new  lands  to  trade  with  all  through  the  sixteenth 
century,  until  at  the  end  they  had  many  valuable 
possessions.  The  chief  of  these  were  Brazil  in  South 
America,  Goa  in  India,  Malacca  in  the  East  Indies,  and 
some  settlements  along  the  east  coast  of  Africa.  Por- 
tugal valued  these  possessions  mostly  because  of  her 
enormous  trade  with  them.  She  was  too  small  a 
country  to  try  to  conquer  them,  and  govern  the  people 
who  lived  in  them.  So  she  made  them  trading  stations, 
and  her  Empire  was  really  a  great  trading  Empire. 


ENGLAND   AND   THE   NEW   WORLD  17 

The  Pope  drew  a  line  down  the  map  through  the 
Atlantic,  which  you  will  see  in  the  map  on  p.  13,  and 
gave  the  Portuguese  all  the  land  east  of  that  line, 
along  the  coast  of  Africa  and  towards  India ;  and  to 
the  Spaniards  he  gave  all  the  lands  and  islands  to  the 
west  of  that  line.  Later  on  Brazil  was  added  to  the 
Portuguese  Empire,  and  in  the  end  became  the  most 
important  part  of  it. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ENGLAND  AND  THE  NEW  WORLD 

"  Far  to  the  west,  in  the  ocean  wide, 
Beyond  the  realms  of  Gaul,  a  land  there  lies, 
Sea-girt  it  is,  where  giants  dwelt  of  old ; 
Now  void,  it  fits  thy  people :  thither  bend 
Thy  course  ;  there  shalt  thou  find  a  lasting  seat ; 
There  to  thy  sons  another  Troy  shall  rise, 
And  kings  be  born  of  thee,  whose  dreaded  might 
Shall  awe  the  world,  and  conquer  nations  bold." 

—Milton. 

1.  The  northern  peoples  of  Europe  were  slower  than  the 
Spaniards  and  the  Portuguese  in  beginning  to  explore,  for 
they  had  had  no  share  in  the  Mediterranean  trade,  and 
so  were  less  affected  when  the  trade  routes  to  the  East 
were  closed  by  the  Turks.  But  the  news  of  the  excit- 
ing adventures  and  the  rich  discoveries  of  the  explorers 
soon  spread  over  Europe,  and  the  other  nations  began 
to  long  to  share  in  them.  The  first  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  Spaniards  and  the  Portuguese  were 
the  English,  and  once  they  started,  they  quickly  took 


18     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

a  leading  place,  for  they  had  several  advantages  in  the 
struggle  for  the  lands  and  trade  of  the  New  World. 

2.  If  a  country  wants  to  be  great  and  to  take  a  big 
place  in  the  world,  it  must  first  make  sure  that  it  is 
safe  at  home.  There  is  no  use  in  seeking  new  pos- 
sessions across  the  sea,  if  you  leave  the  door  open  for 
your  enemy  to  attack  and  rob  you  at  home.  While 
Portugal,  and  Spain,  and  France,  and  Holland  were 
trying  to  win  lands  in  the  New  World,  they  had  also  to 
defend  miles  and  miles  of  their  own  boundaries  in  the 
Old  World,  to  prevent  their  next-door  neighbours  from 
stepping  over  them.  But  England  was  saved  from  all 
this ;  her  boundary  was  the  sea,  and  she  knew  that  no 
foreign  foes  could  step  across  it,  unless  they  were  strong 
enough  to  build  a  bigger  fleet  than  her  own  and  win 
command  of  the  sea.     As  Shakespeare  says — 

"...  England  hedged  in  with  the  main, 
That  water-walled  bulwark,  still  secure 
And  confident  from  foreign  purposes." 

3.  The  sea  is  a  good  boundary  in  another  way ;  for 
besides  being  a  strong  wall  to  keep  out  enemies,  it  is 
the  great  open  road  which  leads  all  round  the  world 
and  joins  all  countries  to  one  another.  No  country  can 
be  really  great  if  it  is  shut  up  quite  by  itself.  Its 
people  must  be  able  to  communicate  with  other 
peoples,  to  learn  from  them  and  to  trade  with  them. 
That  is  why  every  great  country  must  have  good 
rivers  and  seaports,  for  they  are  the  avenues  and  gates 
opening  on  to  the  highways  of  the  sea.  England  is 
very  rich  in  rivers  and  seaports.  She  has  first  of  all 
the  Thames,  leading  right  into  the  heart  of  the  south 
country ;    then   comes   the   Bristol   Channel   and    the 


ENGLAND   AND   THE   NEW   WORLD         19 

Severn,  which  open  up  the  south-west ;  and  many 
smaller  entries,  like  the  Humber  and  the  Mersey, 
which  serve  the  north  of  England.  In  Scotland  the 
Firths  of  Forth  and  Clyde  act  as  great  entries  from 
East  and  West.  Besides  these  great  river  roadways, 
there  are  many  fine  harbours,  like  Southampton  and 
Plymouth,  all  round  the  British  coast,  so  that  when 
the  English  began  to  think  of  exploration,  they  found 
that  the  road  to  the  New  World  started  from  their 
very  doors. 

4.  Then  England  had  an  advantage  in  her  climate. 
A  very  hot  climate  affects  a  people's  habits  and 
character,  and  makes  them  lazy  and  disinclined  to 
move  or  start  on  great  enterprises ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  very  cold  countries,  people  have  to  spend  a 
great  deal  of  the  year  indoors,  when  the  earth  and  the 
rivers  and  lakes  are  frozen  hard.  The  climate  of 
England,  however,  is  neither  very  hot  nor  very  cold. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  temperate  in  the  world.  It  is 
never  too  hot  in  the  summer,  and  the  ground  and 
lakes  are  seldom  frozen  for  more  than  a  few  days  in  the 
winter.  So  the  English  people  became  strong  and 
hardy  in  the  cool,  damp  atmosphere  of  their  islands, 
and  were  energetic,  because  they  were  never  forced  to 
stop  work  during  any  part  of  the  year. 

5.  Then  they  had  another  advantage.  The  seas 
round  the  British  Isles  are  shallow  waters  full  of 
valuable  fish,  and  a  great  many  of  the  people  who  lived 
along  the  coast  spent  their  lives  in  fishing.  They  were 
therefore  accustomed  to  sailing  across  the  seas,  and 
were  ready  to  join  in  the  voyages  to  the  New  World  as 
soon  as  it  had  been  discovered.     The  English  fisher- 


England  and  Westeen  Eueope  at  the  End  of  the  Sixteenth 

Centuey 


200  300 


CCORCC  PHIUP*  SON  IZ.' 


Longnurihs  .  Green  &  Co.LondonJfew  York, Bombay  &.  Calcutta 


ENGLAND   AND   THE   NEW   WORLD  21 

men,  too,  were  of  the  greatest  value  in  manning  the 
English  navy;  for  as  a  writer  of  those  days,  called 
Hakluyt,  says,  they  were  "  able  to  enforce  themselves 
into  the  rigour  of  the  stern  and  uncouth  northern  seas, 
and  to  make  trial  of  the  swelling  waves  and  boisterous 
winds  which  there  commonly  do  surge  and  blow." 

6.  So  you  see  what  great  advantages  England  de- 
rived from  being  an  island.  Her  people  were  used  to  the 
sea,  and  had  learnt  to  understand  and  to  love  it ;  they 
were  hardy,  independent,  and  daring ;  they  knew  how  to 
build  good  ships,  and  how  to  sail  them  in  the  roughest 
seas  ;  and  so  in  time  they  became  the  greatest  sailors 
in  the  world.  All  these  advantages  led  to  another  and 
still  greater  advantage.  The  unfortunate  peoples  of 
the  continent  of  Europe  were  continually  harried  by 
the  armies  of  kings  and  feudal  barons,  and  had  to 
devote  all  their  energies  to  protecting  themselves  from 
armed  attack.  But  the  sea  and  their  ships  protected 
the  English  from  just  such  dangers,  and  they  were  able 
to  turn  their  attention  to  devising  a  better  and  a  freer 
system  of  government  than  any  which  had  existed 
before.  The  English  were  the  first  to  invent  trial  by 
jury,  and  government  by  a  parliament.  Trial  by  jury 
meant  that  all  the  subjects  of  the  English  king  were 
fairly  and  justly  treated  in  the  courts  of  law;  they 
were  certain  to  be  punished  if  they  had  done  wrong, 
and  were  equally  sure  of  protection  if  nobles  and  other 
powerful  men  tried  to  ill-use  them.  Government  by 
parliament  meant  that  the  king  had  to  give  up  taxing 
his  subjects  as  he  liked,  and  to  govern  the  country  in 
accordance  with  the  will  of  the  people.  Parliament  has 
steadily  grown  more  and  more  powerful,  until  to-day  it 


22     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

governs  the  country  directly  itself.  When  you  remem- 
ber that  in  these  days  the  people  in  other  lands  were 
heavily  taxed  by  kings,  and  were  tyrannised  over  by 
nobles,  and  often  could  not  obtain  protection  and  justice 
in  the  courts  of  law,  because  the  judges  were  harsh  and 
cruel,  you  will  see  how  fortunate  the  English  were  in 
being  left  free  to  devise  a  good  system  of  government 
for  themselves.  This  system  of  government,  which 
allows  all  British  subjects  to  lead  freer,  safer,  and 
more  peaceful  lives  than  any  one  else,  has  been  trans- 
planted all  over  the  Empire.  As  we  shall  see,  most 
of  the  great  wars  of  the  Empire  have  been  fought  to 
save  it  from  being  upset  by  foreign  kings  and  armies. 

7.  But  though  England  was  an  island  it  was  not  cut 
off  from  Europe,  which  was  the  centre  of  knowledge 
and  learning.  The  English  Channel  was  a  barrier  to 
the  armies  of  England's  enemies  ;  but  it  was  not  a 
barrier  to  trade  or  books,  or  wise  men.  Moreover, 
in  those  days  the  great  rivers  like  the  Seine  and 
the  Rhine  were  the  chief  trade  routes,  and  these  all 
pointed  in  the  direction  of  England.  So  that  while 
the  English  were  more  free  and  independent  than 
any  other  people,  they  were  able  to  learn  all  about 
what  was  going  on  in  other  countries,  and  were  there- 
fore ready  to  take  their  part  in  making  further  dis- 
coveries in  the  New  World  when  the  opportunity  to 
do  so  arose.  And  as  we  shall  see  later,  the  explora- 
tion of  the  New  World  changed  the  whole  position 
of  England.  Before  the  discovery  of  America  she  was 
a  little  island  on  the  edge  of  civilised  Europe,  but 
afterwards,  as  the  map  at  the  beginning  shows,  she 
became  the  very  centre  of  the  whole  earth. 


EXPLORERS   AND   WAR   WITH   SPAIN        23 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  ENGLISH  EXPLORERS  AND  THE  WAR 
WITH   SPAIN  i 

1.  The  sixteenth  century  has  been  called  the  period 
of  Training,  because,  during  it,  the  English  began  to 
leave  their  own  islands  and  take  to  a  seafaring  life, 
and  so  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  struggles  later 
on,  out  of  which  the  British  Empire  was  to  grow. 
During  this  time,  as  we  have  seen,  they  explored  the 
world  and  came  to  know  their  way  about  it ;  they 
found  out  what  other  peoples  and  countries  were  like ; 
and  still  more  important,  they  became  clever  sailors, 
and  learnt  to  manage  their  ships  both  in  peace  and  war. 
2.  Let  us  see  how  the  early  English  adventurers 
fared.  The  Portuguese  had  already  gained  a  big  start 
in  India,  Africa,  and  South  America,  and  the  Spaniards 
had  sailed  west  and  discovered  the  West  Indies  and 
Central  America,  so  the  English  naturally  turned  to 
the  northern  seas.  The  first  explorer  to  start  from 
England  was  John  Cabot.  He  was  a  Genoese,  but  he 
came  to  England,  and  King  Henry  VII.  gave  him 
leave  to  arrange  an  English  expedition,  and  to  take 
possession  of  any  unknown  lands  he  might  discover. 
In  1497  he  set  out  from  Bristol,  and  sailed  due  west 
across  the  Atlantic  till  he  discovered  Newfoundland 
and  the  coast  of  North  America.  For  this  discovery 
the  King  gave  him  a  reward  of  £10.     In  Henry  VII.'s 

1  See  maps  on  pp.  15  and  20. 


24     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

account-book  is  written :  "To  hym  that  found  the 
New  Isle,  £10."  Newfoundland  has  been  famous  ever 
since  for  the  fisheries  on  the  banks  which  lie  off  her 
coast. 

3.  After  this  the  English  sailors,  hearing  of  the 
riches  of  the  Indian  trade,  thought  that  they  might 
be  able  to  find  yet  another  way  to  India  by  sailing 
round  the  north  of  Europe,  or  even  round  the  north  of 
the  new  continent  of  America.  So  in  1553  an  ex- 
pedition set  out  under  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby  and 
Richard  Chancellor,  and  sailed  up  the  coast  of  Norway, 
little  knowing  what  a  rough  and  icy  sea  they  would  find. 
Before  they  had  gone  very  far  a  great  storm  overtook 
them,  and  Willoughby  and  two  of  his  ships  were 
separated  from  the  rest,  and  long  afterwards  they  were 
found  off  the  coast  of  Lapland  with  their  crews  all 
frozen  to  death.  Chancellor  managed  to  sail  round 
the  north  of  Norway  into  the  White  Sea,  but  then  he 
saw  that  he  could  get  no  farther.  So  there  he  landed 
and  travelled  all  through  Russia,  as  far  as  Moscow, 
where  he  visited  the  Czar.  This  journey  paved  the 
way  for  English  trade  with  Russia. 

4.  The  next  attempt  was  made  in  1576  by  a  man 
called  Frobisher,  who  sailed  in  the  opposite  direction, 
and  thought  he  could  find  a  way  round  the  north  of 
America;  but  though  he  sailed  farther  than  any  one 
else  had  been,  he  did  not  get  very  far  on  the  road  to 
India,  as  you  can  see  by  the  bay  that  is  called  after 
him.  Other  people  afterwards  also  tried  to  discover 
a  sea-road  to  India  by  what  is  known  as  the  North- 
west Passage ;  but  it  was  soon  found  to  be  impos- 
sible, for  during  half  the  year  the  seas  were  frozen, 


EXPLORERS   AND   WAR   WITH   SPAIN       25 

while   during  the   other   half  they   were    filled   with 
dangerous  icebergs. 

5.  When  the  English  found  that  there  was  little 


Sir  Martin  Frobisher,  died  1594 

(From  a  picture  belonging  to  the  Earl  of  Carlisle) 

profit  to  be  made  out  of  voyages  to  these  cold  and 
desolate  regions,  they  began  to  sail  in  the  warmer  seas 
to  the  south.     But  there  they  came  across  Spanish 

B 


26     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

ships,  and  soon  a  sort  of  private  war  sprang  up  be- 
tween the  sailors  of  the  two  countries.  At  that  time 
the  English  hated  the  Spaniards,  both  because  of  their 
religion  (for  Spain  was  Catholic  and  England  had  just 
turned  Protestant),  and  because  they  wanted  a  share 
in  the  trade  with  the  New  World.  The  Spanish 
colonies  were  very  rich  in  gold  and  silver,  but  the 
Spaniards  would  allow  no  one  but  their  own  people 
even  to  land  in  them.  After  the  English  had  been 
attacked  once  or  twice  for  trying  to  trade  with  America 
and  the  West  Indies  they  became  angry,  and  began 
to  harry  their  enemies  with  such  success  that  soon 
the  name  of  the  English  sailors  became  a  terror  to 
the  Spanish  merchants.  The  Sea-dogs,  as  the  Eng- 
lish called  themselves,  roamed  about  the  sea,  and 
whenever  one  of  the  huge,  clumsy,  Spanish  treasure- 
ships  hove  in  sight,  they  used  to  cram  all  sail  on  their 
own  vessels  and  chase  her,  and  usually,  after  a  struggle, 
they  would  board  her  and  overcome  the  crew.  Then 
they  would  plunder  the  Spanish  ship  and  carry  its 
treasure  back  to  England.  Before  very  long  great  num- 
bers of  Sea-dogs  were  busily  engaged  in  these  piratical 
exploits,  for  they  found  them  a  far  quicker  and  much 
more  exciting  way  of  making  a  fortune  than  trading 
with  the  New  World. 

6.  But  after  a  time  the  Spanish  king  became 
alarmed  at  the  growing  power  of  the  English,  so  he 
determined  to  destroy  them.  He  built  a  great  fleet  of 
which  he  was  so  proud  that  he  called  it  the  Invincible 
Armada,  and  sent  it  out,  in  1588,  to  conquer  England 
and  destroy  her  sailors  and  fleet.  The  English  were 
greatly  alarmed,  because  Spain  was  then  the  strongest 


EXPLORERS   AND   WAR   WITH   SPAIN       27 

power  in  Europe.  But  they  collected  all  their  ships 
and  put  them  under  their  most  famous  sea- 
captains.  Lord  Howard  was  in  command,  and  with 
him  were  Frobisher,  Hawkins,  Drake,  and  Raleigh,  of 


"~"i 

Hi 

*& 

^1 

f  9 

i 

s£  w       — 

L 

| 

f 

Hawkins,  Drake,  and  Cavendish 

whose  exploits  we  shall  hear  more  later  on.  The  Eng- 
lish ships  were  much  smaller  than  the  Spanish  ships, 
and  carried  fewer  guns  and  men,  but  they  were  swifter 
and  more  easy  to  stop  or  turn.  The  English,  therefore, 
determined  to  avoid  a  regular  battle,  but  to  dash  in 


28     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE    BRITISH    EMPIRE 

among  the  enemy's  fleet  as  often  as  a  good  opportunity 
occurred  and  disable  their  ships  one  by  one.  When  the 
Armada  was  first  sighted  coming  up  from  the  south 
there  was  a  strong  wind  blowing  up  the  Channel,  so 
they  let  it  go  by,  and  then  harassed  it  from  behind. 
Whenever  the  Spaniards  tried  to  turn  their  vessels 
round  to  resist  the  attack  they  were  driven  back  by 
the  wind,  while  the  English  ships  could  charge  down 
as  often  as  they  liked.  At  last,  when  the  ships  of 
the  Armada  were  all  in  confusion,  the  real  battle  took 
place,  and  the  Spaniards  were  badly  beaten.  Then 
they  tried  to  sail  away,  but  a  mighty  gale  sprang  up 
and  completed  the  victory  the  English  had  begun. 
The  Spanish  ships  were  driven  round  the  north  of 
Scotland,  but  one  after  the  other  they  were  dashed  to 
pieces  on  the  shore.  Of  all  the  120  vessels  of  King 
Philip's  Invincible  Armada,  only  54  shattered  wrecks 
reached  home  to  tell  the  tale. 

7.  This  victory  marks  a  very  important  stage  in 
the  growth  of  the  Empire.  Up  to  this  time  Spain 
had  been  the  great  colonising  power,  and,  though  the 
English  Sea-dogs  had  captured  some  treasure-ships, 
the  Spanish  navy  had  always  been  supposed  to  be 
invincible.  But  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  proved 
that  a  new  people  had  arisen  to  claim  the  supremacy 
of  the  seas.  It  marked  the  failure  of  the  first  of  the 
many  attempts  on  the  part  of  European  kings  to 
deprive  the  English  of  their  freedom.  It  marked, 
too,  the  beginning  of  England's  sea-power,  and,  as  we 
shall  learn  later  on,  it  has  been  sea-power  which  has 
enabled  England  to  win  and  hold  her  Empire. 


THE  SEA-DOGS  29 

CHAPTER    VI 

THE   SEA-DOGS1 

1.  Let  us  now  find  out  some  more  about  the  exploits 
of  the  Sea-dogs.  One  of  the  most  daring  was  a  man 
called  John  Hawkins,  who  made  himself  famous  in  a 
horrible  way,  for  he  was  the  first  of  the  English  to 
begin  what  is  called  the  slave-trade.  In  one  of  his 
voyages  to  the  Spanish  colonies  he  found  out  that 
"negroes  were  very  good  merchandise  in  Hispaniola2 
(one  of  the  West  Indian  Islands),  and  that  they  might 
easily  be  had  off  the  coast  of  Guinea."  They  were 
used  as  labourers  on  the  sugar  plantations  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  the  planters,  who  could  get  no  one  else 
to  do  the  work,  used  to  pay  high  prices  for  them. 
Hawkins  collected  several  ships,  and  filled  them  with 
negroes  whom  he  seized  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa, 
and  then  he  took  them  across  the  Atlantic  and  sold 
them  in  the  Spanish  colonies.  People  in  those  days 
were  not  so  civilised  as  we  are  now,  and  they  did  not 
stop  to  think  how  cruel  and  wicked  it  was  to  tear  all 
these  poor  negroes  away  from  their  homes  and  sell 
them  into  slavery.  But  the  Spaniards  were  anxious 
to  keep  the  slave-trade  to  themselves,  and  did  not 
want  the  English  to  come  near  their  colonies  at  all, 
so  they  used  to  attack  the  English  slave-ships  when- 
ever they  could  find  them,  and  the  English  captains 

1  See  map  on  p.  15  for  Drake's  voyage. 

2  Now  known  as  Haiti. 


30     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

had  to  smuggle  their  slaves  ashore  as  best  they  could. 
Hawkins  himself  managed  to  smuggle  a  great  many 
slaves,  and  made  himself  very  rich.  But  at  last  he 
was  caught  by  a  strong  Spanish  fleet,  and  though  he 
escaped  with  his  life,  he  lost  all  his  ships  and  nearly 
all  his  riches. 

2.  One  of  his  companions,  who  also  escaped  from 
this  battle,  was  Francis  Drake,  the  most  famous  of  all 
the  sailors  of  that  time.     We  are  told  that  he  was  "  of 
low  stature,  but  set  and  strong  grown,"  and  he  was  so 
bold   that   nothing  could  daunt  him.     He   hated   the 
Spaniards.     His  whole  life  was  spent  in  fighting  them 
and   in  plundering  their  treasure-ships,  so  that  they 
came  to  fear  the  very  sound  of  his  name.      But  the 
deed  which  made  him  most  famous  wras  his  voyage 
round  the  world.     In  one  of  his  earlier  expeditions  to 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  the  long  strip  of  land  which 
joins  North  and  South  America,  the  natives  had  shown  t 
him  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  he  prayed  "  Almighty  God  ' 
to  give  him  life  and  leave  to  sail  once  in  an  English 
ship   on  that  sea."     So  four  years  later,  in  1577,  he* 
collected  a  little  fleet  of  five  ships,  the  biggest  of  which, 
called  the  Pelican,  was  a  vessel  of  only  100  tons,  and 
set  sail  across  the  Atlantic.      Nowadays  we  are   used  >■ 
to  great  liners  of  more  than  30,000  tons,  with  everyjsa 
sort  of  luxury  and  comfort  on   board,  and   we   ma^ 
well  wonder  at  the  courage  of  those  early  sailors  whv  * 
ventured  off  like  this  to  brave  the  storms  and  dangers 
of  unknown  seas. 

3.  Drake  made  straight  for  the  Pacific,  the  new 
ocean  on  which  no  Englishman  had  ever  sailed  before. 
To  get  there  he  had  to  follow  the  east  coast  of  South 


32     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

America  till  he  came  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan ;  and 
here  a  fearful  storm  arose  and  separated  his  little  fleet, 
so  that  when  he  reached  the  Pacific  at  the  farther  end 
he  found  himself  alone.  But,  nothing  daunted,  he 
sailed  up  the  western  side  of  South  America,  and  he 
soon  came  into  conflict  with  his  old  enemies,  the 
Spaniards,  once  more.  As  we  have  already  learnt, 
they  had  long  before  discovered  these  coasts  by  cross- 
ing the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  had  begun  a  rich 
trade  with  them.  But  they  never  dreamt  that  any  one 
would  attack  them  from  the  Pacific  side,  and  when 
Drake  arrived  he  found  them  quite  unprepared,  and  was 
able  to  carry  off  as  much  treasure  as  the  Pelican  would 
hold.  In  one  place  he  found  three  vessels  whose  crews 
were  all  on  shore,  so  he  helped  himself  to  fifty-seven 
blocks  of  silver,  as  big  as  bricks,  which  he  found  on 
board.  Another  time  he  heard  that  a  great  treasure- 
ship  had  just  started  on  her  homeward  journey,  so 
he  quickly  started  in  pursuit.  Soon  the  great  vessel 
was  sighted,  but  Drake  was  afraid  that  her  captain 
would  see  that  the  Pelican  was  chasing  her  and  would 
keep  out  of  her  way,  so  he  planned  a  trick  to  deceive 
him.  He  tied  a  lot  of  empty  jars  on  to  a  rope,  and 
trailed  them  behind  him  in  the  sea.  This  made  the 
Pelican  go  so  slowly  that  the  Spanish  captain  thought 
she  was  just  some  native  boat,  and  came  quite  close  up 
to  look  at  her.  Suddenly  he  was  startled  by  a  great 
burst  of  firing,  which  damaged  his  ship  so  much  that  he 
had  to  surrender,  and  Drake  was  able  to  carry  off  the 
jewels  and  gold  and  other  treasures  which  she  contained. 
4.  Before  very  long  Drake's  name  became  a  terror 
to  the  Spaniards.     So  frightened  of  him  were  they  that 


THE   SEA-DOGS  33 

they  used  to  call  him  "  El  Drague  " — "  the  Dragon." 
But  after  some  years  of  this  roving  life  up  and  down 
the  Pacific  coast  of  America,  Drake  began  to  think  of 
going  home.  At  first  he  tried  to  sail  round  the  north 
of  America,  but  when  he  had  gone  a  very  long  way  up 
the  coast  and  discovered  British  Columbia,  which  is  the 
westernmost  province  of  Canada  to-day,  and  still  could 
find  no  passage,  he  changed  his  mind,  and  sailed  right 
across  the  Pacific  instead.  To  reach  England  in  this 
way  he  had  to  go  past  the  East  Indies,  across  the 
Indian  Ocean,  and  right  round  the  foot  of  South 
Africa,  and  then  sail  northwards  through  the  Atlantic 
l+i  to  the  English  Channel.  But  in  the  end  he  accom- 
plished this  great  journey,  and  when  at  last  he  reached 
Plymouth,  at  the  end  of  three  years,  he  could  proudly 
say  that  he  was  the  first  English  captain  who  had 
sailed  all  round  the  world.  Every  one  was  full  of 
his  wonderful  adventures,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  her- 
self went  down  to  Plymouth  and  made  him  a  knight 
on  the  deck  of  the  brave  little  Pelican. 

5.  If  you  want  to  hear  more  about  the  exploits  of 
this  famous  sea-dog  you  must  read  them  in  another 
book.  There  you  will  find  what  a  great  part  he  took 
in  the  war  with  Spain ;  how  he  helped  to  defeat  the 
Great  Armada ;  how  he  "  singed  the  King  of  Spain's 
beard  "  by  boldly  sailing  into  a  Spanish  port  and  sink- 
ing or  burning  thirty  of  his  ships ;  and  how  he  had 
many  more  such  adventures,  until  at  last  he  died, 
and  was  buried  in  the  sea  which  all  his  life  had  been 
his  home,  so  that  an  old  poet  wrote : 

"  The  waves  became  his  winding-sheet,  the  waters  were  his  tomb, 
But  for  his  fame  the  ocean  sea  was  not  sufficient  room." 

C 


34     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

6.  There  is  one  other  English  sailor  of  those  times 
whose  name  we  must  remember,  and  that  is  Sir  Richard 
Grenville.  During  one  of  the  battles  with  the  Spaniards 
his  little  ship,  the  Revenge,  was  cut  off  from  the  rest  of 
the  English  fleet,  but,  rather  than  give  in  or  escape,  he 
tried  to  force  his  way  through  the  whole  Spanish  fleet. 
For  fifteen  hours  he  fought — one  against  fifty-three. 
At  last,  when  he  was  mortally  wounded,  and  there 
were  hardly  twenty  men  left  alive,  the  Revenge  gave 
in.  His  last  words  were :  "  Here  die  I,  Richard 
Grenville,  with  a  joyful  and  quiet  mind,  for  that  I 
have  ended  my  life  as  a  good  soldier  ought  to  do 
who  has  fought  for  his  country  and  his  queen,  his 
honour  and  his  religion." 


CHAPTER  VII 

RESULTS  OF   THE   AGE   OF  DISCOVERY 

1.  The  exploits  of  the  Sea-dogs  and  the  struggle 
with  Spain,  ending  in  the  defeat  of  the  Armada,  were 
the  main  achievements  of  the  English  during  the 
sixteenth  century.  But  they  were  not  the  only  ones. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  century  a  number  of  attempts 
were  made  to  copy  the  example  of  Spain,  and  to  found 
colonies  of  Englishmen  in  Newfoundland  and  in  Vir- 
ginia on  the  eastern  coast  of  America.  But  these 
early  settlements  really  belong  to  the  next  period, 
and  we  shall  learn  about  them  in  the  next  chapter. 
Before  we  go  on  we  must  find  out  what  the  French 


RESULTS   OF   THE  AGE   OF   DISCOVERY      35 

and   the  Dutch  have   been  doing,   and  sum  up    the 
general  results  of  the  period  of  training. 

2.  About  the  same  time  as  the  English,  the  French 
began  to  think  of  following  the  example  of  Portugal 
and  Spain  in  exploring  the  New  World.  In  1524  a 
man  named  Verruzano  sailed  all  the  way  along  the 
Atlantic  coast  of  North  America,  from  Florida  to  New- 
foundland, and  claimed  it  for  the  King  of  France. 
A  far  more  important  expedition  was  made  in  1534, 
when  Jacques  Cartier,  a  Frenchman,  sailed  up  the  St. 
Lawrence  River,  and  called  all  the  country  about  it 
by  the  name  of  New  France.  This  was  the  beginning 
of  French  power  in  Canada,  and  we  shall  hear  a  great 
deal  more  of  it  later  on. 

3.  After  the  English  and  the  French,  another 
northern  people,  the  Dutch,  began  to  wander  out 
over  the  seas.  But  by  this  time  most  of  the  world 
had  been  explored,  so  we  do  not  hear  of  many  great 
discoverers  from  Holland.  The  most  important  was 
Hudson,  who  tried  to  find  a  new  route  to  India  by 
the  North-west  Passage  round  America,  but  got  no 
farther  than  Hudson's  Bay.  He  also  sailed  up  the 
river  on  which  New  York  now  stands,  and  which  is 
still  called  after  him.  But  although  the  Dutch  were 
not  famous  discoverers,  they  became  the  greatest 
traders  of  that  time.  Like  the  Portuguese,  they  were 
more  anxious  to  trade  with  the  New  World  than  to 
conquer  it.  They  built  a  very  large  number  of  trading 
vessels,  and  were  so  active  and  daring  that  in  the  end 
they  very  nearly  drove  the  Portuguese  out  of  the  East. 

4.  We  have  now  come  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  first  period  in  the  history  of  the  Empire, 


36     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

and  can  look  back  and  see  what  has  happened.  A 
hundred  and  thirty  years  before,  all  that  the  people 
of  Europe  knew  of  the  earth  was  Europe  itself,  a 
little  of  North  Africa,  and  the  south-west  of  Asia. 
The  rest  of  the  world  was  unknown,  and  travel  was 
so  dangerous  and  difficult  that  people  seldom  ven- 
tured far  afield.  Then  the  closing  of  the  great  trade- 
routes  to  the  East,  and  inventions  like  the  compass 
and  the  discovery  that  the  earth  was  round,  brought 
about  a  change.  Men  seemed  suddenly  to  wake  up,  and 
seafarers  of  many  nations  set  about  exploring  the  un- 
known world.  The  Portuguese  led  the  way  by  discover- 
ing the  new  road  to  India  round  the  south  of  Africa, 
and  by  1600  had  built  up  a  great  trade  with  India  and 
the  East,  and  had  founded  an  empire  for  themselves  in 
Brazil.  The  Spaniards  followed  their  example,  and  by  the 
same  date,  1600,  they  had  conquered  rich  possessions 
in  the  West  Indies  and  in  Central  and  South  America, 
from  which  they  gained  great  wealth.  Then  came 
the  English.  They  had  not  yet  become  great  traders, 
and  had  spent  most  of  their  time  in  exploring  and  in 
attacking  and  plundering  their  Spanish  enemies.  So 
by  1600  they  had  won  no  lands  beyond  the  sea,  though 
they  had  tried  to  make  some  settlements  in  America. 
The  French  had  explored  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  and  had 
tried  to  found  a  settlement  there.  And  the  Dutch  were 
beginning  to  build  up  a  great  trade  with  the  Far  East. 

5.  So  at  the  end  of  the  first  period  two  great 
changes  had  come  about.  In  the  first  place,  almost 
the  whole  world  had  been  explored;  and  the  white 
peoples  of  Europe,  instead  of  being  afraid  to  venture 
away  from  their  homes,  were  gradually  spreading  over 


RESULTS   OF  THE   AGE   OF   DISCOVERY     37 

the  new  lands.  In  the  second  place,  out  of  the  islands 
and  continents  that  had  been  discovered,  two  great 
empires  had  been  founded — the  trade  Empire  of  the 
Portuguese,  and  the  military  Empire  of  the  Spaniards. 
For  most  of  the  century  the  foremost  position  of  Spain 
and  Portugal  was  unchallenged.  But  at  the  end  new 
peoples  had  risen  up  and  had  begun  to  prepare  them- 
selves to  struggle  for  the  rich  lands  of  the  New  World ; 
and  the  chief  of  these  were  the  English. 

6.  The  sixteenth  century  has  been  called  the  period 
of  training,  because  during  it  England  began  to  make 
herself  fit  for  the  task  of  building  up  her  Empire.  Let 
us  see  what  preparations  she  had  made.  In  the  first 
place,  as  we  have  seen,  she  had  devised  a  good  system 
of  government,  and  banished  from  her  own  lands  the 
tyranny  and  oppression  which  did  so  much  harm  to 
her  neighbours.  Under  this  good  system  of  govern- 
ment her  people  grew  rich,  and  strong,  and  independent. 
In  the  second  place,  her  sailors  and  merchants  had 
learnt  thoroughly  about  the  New  World  and  the  way 
to  reach  it.  They  had  found  their  way  to  the  new 
countries,  and  discovered  what  the  inhabitants  and 
climate  are  like,  and  what  riches  and  merchandise 
they  contained.  In  the  third  place,  the  English  had 
grown  into  bold  and  daring  sailors,  able  to  handle  their 
ships  in  good  weather  and  bad,  and  to  fight  by  sea 
as  well  as  on  land.  As  we  go  on  we  shall  see  what 
a  tremendous  advantage  this  was,  because  almost  the 
whole  struggle  for  the  New  World  turned  into  one  long 
fight  for  the  command  of  the  sea.  Very  soon  after  she 
began  to  acquire  lands  across  the  sea  England  found 
out  that  she  could  not  build  up  settlements,  or  keep 


38     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

her  possessions,  unless  the  great  sea-roads  which  led 
to  them  were  open  to  her  sailors  and  merchants,  and 
unless  she  could  protect  her  ships  from  being  captured 
(or  sunk  by  foreign  enemies.  The  other  great  powers 
learnt  just  the  same  lesson.  Spain,  Portugal,  Holland, 
and  Prance  each  in  turn  found  that  they  could  only 
keep  their  Empires  if  they  were  strong  by  sea.  So 
one  after  the  other  they  came  into  conflict  with  the 
sea-power  of  England.  That  is  why  this  period  of 
training  is  so  important,  for  during  it  the  English 
gained  the  experience  which  enabled  them  in  the  end, 
after  many  struggles,  to  defeat  all  their  enemies,  and 
so  make  England  the  mistress  of  the  seas. 

In  this  period  the  important  names  and  dates  are 
as  follows : — 

Discovery  of  Compass. 
1453.  Capture  of  Constantinople  by  Ottoman  Turks. 
1394-1460.  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  the  Navigator. 
1486.  Bartolomeo  Diaz  sails  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
1492.  Columbus  discovers  America. 
1497.  Vasco  da  Gama  reaches  India  round  the  Cape. 
1497.  Cabot  leads  the  first  English  Expedition  to  America. 
1513.  Discovery  of  the  Pacific  by  Balboa. 
1519-22.  Magellan  sails  round  the  world. 
1521.  Conquest  of  Mexico  by  Cortes. 

1533.  Conquest  of  Peru  by  Pizarro. 

1534.  Voyage  of  Cartier  to  Canada. 

1553.  Expedition  of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby  to  the  White  Sea. 
1576.  Frobisher's  attempt  to  find  a  North-west  Passage. 
1577-80.  Drake's  voyage  round  the  world. 
1583.  Sir     Humphrey     Gilbert     attempts    first     settlement    in 

Newfoundland. 
1585.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  tries  to  found  first  English  colony  in 

Virginia. 
1588.  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada  and  beginning  of  English 

sea-power. 


PART    II 

PERIOD  OF  COLONISATION  BY  SETTLEMENT 
SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 

CHAPTER    VIII 

ENGLAND'S  FIRST  COLONIES 

"  There  lives  nor  form  nor  feeling  in  my  soul 
Unborrowed  from  my  country." 

— COLERIDGE. 

1.  We  come  now  to  the  second  period  in  the  history 
of  the  Empire,  the  seventeenth  century,  and  at  the 
beginning  of  it  a  new  kind  of  explorer  comes  upon 
the  scene.  The  first  explorers  had  been  men  like 
Willoughby  and  Frobisher,  who  set  out  to  discover 
new  lands  and  new  roads  to  old  lands.  The  second 
were  the  Sea-dogs,  sailors  who  roved  the  sea,  making 
themselves  rich  by  plundering  the  Spanish  enemies 
of  England.  And  now  a  third  set  appear,  men  who 
wanted  to  make  England  really  great  and  strong,  and 
who  saw  that  there  were  better  ways  of  doing  this  than 
merely  spiting  the  Spaniards  by  spoiling  their  trade 
and  seizing  their  gold.  They  saw  that  the  proper  way 
was  to  found  colonies  in  the  New  World  where  English- 
men would  settle  and  make  their  homes,  and  which 


40     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH  EMPIRE 

would  become  in  time  valuable  possessions  and  great 
centres  of  trade.  The  first  and  most  famous  of  the 
men  to  make  this  attempt  were  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert 
and  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  Neither  of  them  lived  to  see 
their  plans  succeed,  but  we  may  still  call  Gilbert  and 
Raleigh  the  founders  of  the  Empire  across  the  seas,, 
because  they  were  the  first  to  think  of  spreading  the 
power  of  England  by  planting  colonies  in  different, 
parts  of  the  world,  and  because  British  colonies  after- 
wards grew  up  in  the  very  places  they  had  chosen. 

2.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  made  the  first  attempt 
to  found  a  colony,  and  the  place  he  chose  was  the 
nearest  land  he  could  find  in  the  New  World,  the  island 
of  Newfoundland,  which  had  been  discovered  nearly 
a  hundred  years  before  by  John  Cabot.  This  island 
claims  to  be  the  oldest  British  colony,  but,  though 
English  people  went  out  there  very  early  on  account 
of  the  fishing  trade,  it  did  not  become  part  of  the 
British  Empire  until  long  afterwards.  Sir  Humphrey 
Gilbert  founded  his  colony  in  1583,  but  it  did  not 
succeed ;  the  climate  was  cold  and  wet,  and  it  was 
difficult  to  make  a  living,  and  so  he  and  his  settlers  had 
to  leave  the  island.  But  he  never  reached  his  home, 
for  as  he  sailed  across  the  Atlantic  he  was  caught  in 
a  great  storm.  He  had  chosen  the  smallest  boat  for 
himself,  a  tiny  vessel  of  ten  tons,  called  the  Squirrel, 
and  would  not  go  in  a  bigger  one.  He  was  not  at 
all  afraid,  even  in  the  height  of  the  tempest,  but  called 
out  to  his  friends  in  another  ship,  "We  are  as  near 
heaven  by  sea  as  by  land."  A  few  minutes  later  his 
little  boat  was  swallowed  up  by  the  waves,  and  all  on 
board  were  drowned. 


ENGLAND'S   FIRST   COLONIES  41 

3.  More  famous  still  was  his  half-brother,  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh.  He  was  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  that  time, 
and  was  a  special  friend  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  liked 
him  for  his  good  looks  and  his  cleverness  as  well  as  for 
his  fearless  daring.  He  loved  adventure,  and  all  his 
life,  whenever  danger  threatened  and  blows  had  to  be 
struck  by  land  or  sea,  he  was  sure  to  be  in  the  thick  of 


Sir  Walter  Raleigh 

it.  Besides  this,  he  was  a  learned  man  and  a  poet ; 
but  the  dearest  wish  of  his  heart  was  to  spread  the 
power  and  fame  of  England,  by  founding  colonies  in 
the  New  World.  He  made  many  voyages  across  the 
Atlantic,  and  you  have  probably  heard  how  he  brought 
tobacco  and  potatoes  from  America  to  England  for  the 
first  time.  In  1584  the  Queen  gave  him  permission  to 
take  any  heathen  lands  he  might  discover,  and  to  found 


42     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

a  colony  at  a  place  on  the  coast  of  America,  which  he 
called  Virginia,  after  Queen  Elizabeth.  But  for  one 
reason  or  another  the  colony  did  not  flourish.  Some 
of  the  colonists  were  killed  by  natives,  some  disappeared 
and  were  never  heard  of  any  more,  and  at  length  the 
remainder  were  rescued  and  brought  home  by  Drake. 
But  Raleigh  did  not  give  up  the  idea  of  winning  lands 
in  the  New  World  for  England,  and  a  few  years  after- 
wards he  set  out  on  a  voyage  to  South  America,  to  look 
for  a  wonderful  land  full  of  silver  and  gold  of  which 
he  had  heard.  As  you  may  suppose,  he  never  found 
it,  though  he  went  400  miles  up  the  Orinoco  River  in 
search  of  it. 

4.  Raleigh  was  a  great  enemy  of  the  Spaniards,  and 
over  and  over  again  we  find  him  fighting  against  them. 
He  was  one  of  the  admirals  who  commanded  the  ships 
which  defeated  the  great  Armada,  and,  when  some 
years  later  Queen  Elizabeth  sent  out  a  fleet  to  attack 
the  Spaniards  on  their  own  shores,  Raleigh  sailed  with 
them  in  his  ship  called  the  Warspit.  They  made  for 
Cadiz,  where  they  found  the  Spanish  ships  drawn  up 
in  a  line  across  the  harbour.  Raleigh  led  the  way 
amongst  them,  and  laid  the  Warspit  alongside  of  the 
two  largest  Spanish  ships.  Alter  a  desperate  struggle, 
the  Spaniards  were  utterly  defeated  and  set  fire  to 
their  own  vessels,  and  all  but  two  were  burnt.  Then 
the  English  landed  and  sacked  the  town. 

5.  When  the  Queen  died  Raleigh  lost  his  high 
place  in  Court,  and  his  enemies  persuaded  King  James 
to  put  him  into  prison.  Even  then  he  could  not  be 
idle,  and  he  set  to  work  to  write  a  "  History  of  the 
World."     After  a  time  he  begged  King  James  to  let 


ENGLAND'S   FIRST   COLONIES  43 

him  go  and  look  once  more  for  his  golden  country, 
and  the  King,  who  wanted  money,  released  him  on 
condition  he  did  not  make  war  on  the  Spaniards,  for 
England  was  then  at  peace  with  Spain.  Unfortunately 
for  Raleigh,  the  part  of  South  America  to  which  he 
sailed  already  belonged  to  the  Spaniards,  who  naturally 
refused  to  allow  their  old  enemy  to  land  and  search 
for  riches.  So  instead  of  returning  in  triumph  with 
his  ships  loaded  with  treasure,  poor  Raleigh  had 
to  tell  the  King  that  he  had  found  no  riches,  and  had 
been  defeated  after  disobeying  his  orders,  and  had  lost 
his  son  as  well.  James  was  so  angry  with  him  for 
breaking  his  command  that  he  ordered  his  head  to 
be  cut  off,  which  seems  very  cruel  to  us  to-day. 
Raleigh,  who  had  been  so  brave  all  his  life,  was  not 
afraid  to  die.  When  he  mounted  the  scaffold  he 
asked  to  see  the  axe,  and,  feeling  its  edge,  he  said: 
"  This  is  sharp  medicine,  but  it  is  a  sound  cure  for  all 
diseases."  Then  he  said  his  prayers,  laid  his  head  on 
the  block,  and  quietly  met  his  death. 

6.  So  we  see  that  the  first  attempt  at  founding  settle- 
ments had  been  a  failure.  But  the  idea  was  not  given 
up,  for  many  different  sorts  of  people  believed  in  it. 
The  English  sailors  and  merchants  wanted  to  share 
in  the  riches  of  the  New  World,  and  they  soon  found 
that  in  the  long  run  the  best  way  of  growing  rich  was 
not  to  fight  and  rob  the  Spaniards,  but  to  trade  with 
colonies  of  Englishmen  in  the  New  World.  Other 
people,  again,  were  jealous  of  the  power  of  Spain,  and 
thought  that  by  founding  colonies  they  would  put  a 
"byt  into  the  ancient  enemye's  mouth."  Kings  and 
statesmen,  too,  saw  that   colonies   would   spread   the 


44     THE    GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

power  of  England  over  the  world.  Hakluyt,  who  lived 
in  those  days,  helped  to  rouse  the  ambition  of  the 
English  by  his  writings.  In  1589  he  said  in  his  odd, 
old-fashioned  language :  "  I  conceive  great  hope  that  the 
time  approacheth,  and  now  is,  that  we  of  England  may 
share  and  part  stakes  (if  we  will  ourselves)  both  with 
the  Spaniards  and  the  Portingale  (Portuguese),  in  part 
of  America  and  other  regions  as  yet  undiscovered.'* 
We  will  see  in  the  next  chapter  how  these  ideas  bore 
fruit. 

CHAPTER   IX 

THE  AMERICAN  COLONIES1 

1.  Although  the  first  attempts  at  colonising 
America  were  a  failure,  it  was  not  very  long  before 
a  successful  settlement  was  made.  Curiously  enough 
it  was  founded  in  the  very  place  which  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  had  chosen.  Though  Raleigh  was  very  much 
disappointed  at  his  first  failure,  he  was  not  discouraged, 
and  wrote  home  a  prophecy  to  Lord  Burleigh,  the 
Secretary  of  State,  which  in  the  end  came  true.  He 
said,  "  I  shall  yet  live  to  see  it  an  English  nation,"  and 
sure  enough  the  new  colony  of  Virginia  was  founded  in 
1607,  eleven  years  before  his  head  was  cut  off. 

2.  The  colony  was  soon  in  trouble.  It  was  an  ex- 
periment, and  there  were  few  people  bold  enough  to 
lead  the  way  there,  especially  after  the  disappoint- 
ments of  the  earlier  settlement,  and  of  Sir  Humphrey 
Gilbert's  expedition  to  Newfoundland.  It  was  diffi- 
cult to  find  labourers,  and  food  and  everything  else 

1  See  map  on  p.  71. 


THE   AMERICAN   COLONIES  45 

was  scarce  and  expensive,  because  there  were  not 
enough  people  to  do  the  work.  "Nothing  is  to  be 
expected  thence  but  by  labour,"  wrote  the  leader  of 
the  settlers.  Then  the  founders  of  the  colony  tried 
to  use  force,  and  sent  a  great  many  homeless  boys 
and  girls,  and  even  prisoners,  out  from  England. 
Naturally  such  people  did  not  make  good  settlers, 
and  the  colonists  complained  that  they  were  "  unruly 
gallants  packed  thither  by  their  friends  to  escape  ill 
destinies."  But  at  last  a  way  was  found  out  of  the  diffi- 
culty, and  a  large  number  of  negroes  was  brought  in 
from  Africa  to  do  the  work.  These  negroes  have  been 
one  of  the  greatest  troubles  of  America  ever  since ;  but 
they  were  found  very  useful  at  the  time,  and  they  were 
set  to  grow  tobacco,  for  which  that  country  is  well 
suited.  The  tobacco  plant  grew  so  well,  and  there 
was  such  a  good  sale  for  it,  that  soon  the  very  streets 
of  their  towns  were  sown  with  it.  In  fifteen  years  the 
number  of  colonists  had  grown  to  five  thousand,  and 
Virginia  has  ever  since  been  famous  for  its  tobacco. 

3.  But  in  those  days  there  was  one  great  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  founding  colonies  successfully.  The 
Government  of  England  was  too  busy  to  help  settle- 
ment, and  it  could  do  little  more  than  give  charters 
which  allowed  people  to  trade,  or  set  up  colonies  in 
certain  places.  So  that  all  the  work  of  starting  new 
colonies  had  to  be  done  by  private  people.  But  private 
people  found  that  though  plenty  of  men  were  ready 
enough  to  go  off  for  a  year  or  two  on  a  voyage  of  dis- 
covery, hoping  to  make  a  fortune  at  the  end,  they  were 
not  so  anxious  to  leave  their  old  homes  for  ever.  They 
did  not  like  the  idea  of  taking  their  wives  and  families 


46     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

to  a  far-away,  unknown  country,  where  they  might  be 
attacked  by  savages,  where  there  were  no  towns  or 
villages,  or  even  houses  or  roads,  and  where  at  first  it 
would  be  difficult  to  make  a  living.  It  is  quite  a 
different  thing  nowadays  when  people  can  first  of  all 
read  in  books  and  newspapers  all  about  a  new  country, 
and  can  even  go  and  see  it  and  find  out  for  themselves 
what  it  is  like,  and  then  come  home  if  they  can't  find 
friends  or  don't  get  on.  In  those  days  it  was  a  dan- 
gerous, lonely  undertaking,  and  men  and  women 
would  not  go  out  as  settlers  to  America  unless  they 
had  some  very  strong  reason  to  make  them  go. 

4.  Fortunately  for  the  British  Empire,  a  very  strong 
reason  appeared  at  this  very  time.  As  you  know  from 
your  English  history,  there  was  a  great  dispute  going 
on  in  England  about  religion  between  King  James  I. 
and  the  Puritans.  The  King's  party  was  the  stronger, 
and  the  Puritans  were  persecuted  for  their  religion,  and 
a  great  many  of  them  went  to  Holland  to  escape  from 
their  enemies.  Then  some  of  them  made  up  their 
minds  to  go  off  to  the  New  World,  because  they 
thought  that  there  they  would  be  able  to  practise  their 
religion  in  peace  in  their  own  way. 

5.  In  May  1620,  the  first  band  of  a  hundred  and  two 
set  sail  in  a  tiny  ship  called  the  Mayflower.  Though 
the  journey  only  takes  five  days  now,  it  was  six  long 
months  before  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  as  they  were  called, 
sighted  land.  Their  leaders  had  meant  to  go  to 
Virginia,  but  the  Mayflower  was  driven  ashore  much 
farther  north  at  Cape  Cod,  and  there  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  landed  and  founded  their  colony.  The  shore 
was  very  bleak  and  cold,  and  the  country  covered  with 


THE  AMERICAN   COLONIES 


47 


forests,  and  the  hard  winter  of  those  parts  set  in  on 
them  almost  at  once.  For  the  first  few  years  they 
had  to  suffer  terrible  hardships.  The  only  people  in 
the  land  were  the  wandering  tribes  of  savage  Indians. 
There  was  no  one  from  whom  they  could  buy  what 
they  wanted,  so  that,  except  for  the  few  things  they 


The  "Mayflower' 


had  been  able  to  bring  with  them  in  their  little  ship, 
they  had  to  make  everything  for  themselves.  And 
while  they  were  ploughing  and  sowing,  and  building 
their  houses  and  churches,  and  making  their  carts  and 
furniture,  they  were  never  far  from  starvation,  and 
often  "  they  knew  not  at  night  where  to  have  a  bit  in 
the  morning." 

6.  Emigration  in  those  days  was  no  easy  task.     But 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  were  strong,  brave  men,  and  they 


48     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

proudly  boasted  that  "it  was  not  with  them  as  with 
other  men  whom  small  things  can  discourage  or  small 
discontentments  cause  to  wish  themselves  at  home 
again."  And  their  friends  in  England  wrote  to  en- 
courage them  :  "  Let  it  not  be  grievous  unto  you  that 
you  have  been  instrumental  to  break  the  ice  for  others. 
The  honour  shall  be  yours  unto  the  world's  end."  So 
they  struggled  on  until  they  began  to  prosper,  and 
after  a  time  the  English  colonies  became  the  strongest 
and  most  powerful  of  all  the  colonies  in  America. 

7.  Once  the  news  of  their  success  reached  England, 
other  people  began  to  follow  their  example.  In  this 
way  a  new  colony  called  Massachusetts  was  founded  in 
1629,  and  in  ten  years  nearly  20,000  people  had  settled 
there.  Soon  a  whole  group  of  settlements  grew  up  all 
along  the  American  coast,  which  came  to  be  known  as 
the  New  England  Colonies.  The  most  important  of 
them  were  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
and  Maine.  Nearly  all  the  people  who  lived  in  them 
were  Puritans  who  had  left  England  to  escape  from 
persecution. 

8.  The  Puritan  settlements  were  not  the  only  ones. 
People  belonging  to  other  religions,  who  were  being 
persecuted  in  the  same  way  as  the  Puritans,  also 
migrated  to  America.  In  1634  Lord  Baltimore  founded 
a  colony  for  the  Catholics,  and  called  it  Maryland  after 
the  wife  of  Charles  I.  In  1663  the  colonies  of  North 
and  South  Carolina  were  formed  farther  south,  partly 
for  the  sake  of  trade,  and  partly  because  of  reli- 
gious persecution.  Later  on,  in  1681,  Pennsylvania 
was  founded  by  William  Penn  for  the  Quakers,  and 
so  well  did  it  nourish  that  in  twenty  years  its  chief 


THE   EXPANSION  OF   BRITISH   TRADE      49 

town,  Philadelphia,  contained  four    thousand    inhabi- 
tants. 

9.  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  religious  persecutions 
all  these  colonies  would  never  have  been  established, 
for  enough  people  would  not  have  left  England  to 
populate  them.  It  was  the  religious  persecutions,  and 
later  the  civil  wars,  which  drove  first  one  side  and  then 
the  other  to  try  its  fortunes  in  the  New  World,  and 
which  thus  overcame  the  great  difficulty  of  persuading 
men  and  women  to  leave  their  homes  to  go  out  to  a 
new  country.  By  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  English  settlers  spread  all  along  the  east  coast  of 
North  America,  till  they  met  the  French  in  the  north 
and  the  Spaniards  in  the  south.  Of  all  the  thirteen 
English  colonies,  there  were  only  two  which  were  not 
directly  due  to  these  causes  —  Virginia,  which  was 
founded  before  the  Puritan  persecution,  and  Georgia, 
which  was  not  founded  until  1733. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    EXPANSION  OF  BRITISH   TRADE1 

1.  You  must  not  suppose  that  all  the  efforts  of  the 
English  during  the  seventeenth  century  were  spent 
in  the  foundation  of  the  American  Colonies,  or  that 
England  was  left  unmolested  by  her  enemies.  At  the 
same  time  that  the  Puritans,  the  Catholics,  and  the 
Quakers  were  colonising  new  lands  for  England  in 
America,  other  Englishmen  were  spreading  her  trade 
over  the  rest  of  the  world.     You  will  remember  that 

1  See  map  facing  p,  65. 


50     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

at  the  end  of  the  last  period  the  English  Sea-dogs  were 
busy  plundering  the  Spanish  dominions,  but  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  seventeenth  century  King  James  I.  made 
peace  with  Spain,  and  the  plunder  of  the  Spanish  galleys- 
had  to  come  to  an  end.  Then  the  English  sailors  and 
merchants  began  to  think  of  trading  for  themselves. 
At  first  traders  fitted  out  ships  of  their  own,  and  sent 
them  out  to  bring  back  the  riches  and  spices  of  India 
and  other  foreign  countries.  Then  after  a  time  all  the 
people  who  traded  with  the  same  lands  would  join 
together  and  obtain  a  charter  from  the  king,  which 
gave  them  the  right  of  all  the  trade  with  these  lands,, 
and  forbade  other  Englishmen  to  interfere  with  them. 
So  they  became  chartered  companies,  which  had  what 
was  called  a  monopoly  of  trade.  But  wherever  the 
English  went  in  search  of  trade  they  either  found  the 
traders  of  other  nations  already  on  the  spot  or  they 
were  quickly  followed  by  them.  Neither  side  wanted 
to  share  their  trade  with  the  other,  and,  as  we  shall 
see  in  the  next  chapter,  it  was  not  very  long  before 
quarrels  arose. 

2.  The  first  company  to  be  founded  was  the  English 
East  India  Company,  which  obtained  a  charter  from 
Queen  Elizabeth  in  1600  to  trade  with  India  and  the 
islands  of  the  East,  "  for  the  honour  of  our  nation  and 
the  wealth  of  our  people."  Two  years  later  the  Dutch 
also  set  up  a  rival  East  India  Company  of  their  own. 
The  English  East  India  Company  soon  found  that,  in 
order  to  carry  on  its  business,  it  had  to  send  men  out  to 
live  in  the  far-off  countries  to  bargain  with  the  natives 
and  collect  goods,  ready  to  be  put  on  board  the  Com- 
pany's ships  when  they  arrived.    So  a  number  of  trading 


THE   EXPANSION   OF   BRITISH   TRADE       51 

stations  were  founded  by  the  English  in  India  during 
the  seventeenth  century.  The  most  important  were 
Madras  and  Calcutta  on  the  east  coast,  and  Bombay  on 
the  west  coast.  These  places  grew  very  quickly,  and  the 
Company  saw  how  valuable  they  were,  and  wrote  to  its 
servants  in  India  to  fortify  and  defend  them  so  that 
they  "  may  be  the  foundation  of  a  large,  well-grounded, 


Fort  William 


sure  dominion  in  India  for  all  time  to  come,"  for,  as 
they  said,  the  natives  "  do  live  easier  under  our  govern- 
ment than  under  any  government  in  Asia." 

3.  But  trading  stations  alone  were  not  enough.  The 
journey  to  and  from  the  East  was  a  very  long  one,  for 
in  those  days  there  was  no  Suez  Canal,  and  ships  had 
to  travel  all  round  the  south  of  Africa,  and  as  they  were 
only  sailing  vessels,  the   voyage  used  to  last  several 


52     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

months.  So  the  traders  of  all  nations  had  to  establish 
stopping-places  on  the  way  to  and  fro,  where  their 
ships'  could  put  in  and  obtain  fresh  meat,  vegetables, 
and  water.  You  remember  how  the  Portuguese  had 
founded  Algoa  and  Delagoa  as  stopping-places  on  the 
road  to  Goa  in  India.  And  now  the  Dutch  and  the 
English  had  to  follow  suit.  The  Dutch  founded  a  port 
of  call  for  their  sailors  at  Cape  Town,  in  the  very  south  of 
Africa  ;  and  the  English  made  their  chief  stopping-place 
in  the  little  island  of  St.  Helena,  in  the  South  Atlantic. 

4.  The  East  India  Company  was  not  the  only  Eng- 
lish trading  company ;  several  others  were  founded 
during  this  period.  One,  the  Russian  Company,  was 
set  up  to  carry  on  the  trade  with  Russia  that  had  been 
started  by  Chancellor.  Another,  which  became  more 
famous,  was  the  African  Company,  which  traded  with 
the  countries  in  the  west  of  Africa  where  the  negroes 
were  seized  and  sent  off  to  slavery  in  America.  Its 
iirst  station  was  founded  in  Gambia,  which  became 
famous  for  its  slave  and  ivory  trades.  Farther  south 
another  station  was  set  up  at  Cape  Coast  Castle.  Both 
of  these  places  still  belong  to  the  British  Empire. 

5.  A  very  large  trade  also  sprang  up  with  the  West 
Indies,  and  there,  too,  the  English  merchants  needed 
trading  stations  and  stopping-places  for  their  ships  on 
the  journeys  to  and  fro.  So,  in  1605,  they  took  Bar- 
bados, a  West  Indian  island  just  off  the  South  American 
eoast,  and  four  years  later  the  Bermudas,  which  are  an 
important  group  of  islands  nearer  the  middle  of  the 
Atlantic.  In  1623  St.  Kitts  was  seized  by  Captain 
Warner,  who  "  thought  it  would  be  a  very  convenient 
place  for  ye  planting  of  tobacco,  which  there  was   a 


THE   EXPANSION   OF   BRITISH   TRADE       53 

rich  commoditie."  St.  Kitts  became  the  mother  of  the 
English  colonies  in  those  seas,  for  from  it  settlers  spread 
to  other  islands,  like  Antigua,  Monserrat,  and  Dominica. 

6.  But  the  most  important  possession  of  England  in 
the  West  Indies  was  gained  later  in  the  century,  and 
this  was  the  island  of  Jamaica,  which  was  taken  from 
the  Spaniards  in  1655.  The  capture  of  Jamaica  was 
important,  partly  because  it  was  a  very  big  and  rich 
island,  and  partly  because  it  was  the  first  possession  that 
England  won  by  conquest.  Up  to  that  time  she  had 
always  gained  her  colonies  by  settlement — that  is  to  say, 
Englishmen  had  settled  in  parts  of  the  New  World  which 
had  not  been  colonised  by  any  other  nation  of  Europe. 
But  when  Cromwell  came  into  power  a  new  era  began. 
Cromwell  was  the  man  who  led  the  Puritans  and  the 
Roundheads  in  the  great  war  against  King  Charles  I. 
and  the  Royalists.  After  the  defeat  and  death  of  the 
King  he  went  to  war  with  Spain,  which  was  the  great 
Catholic  power.  He  refused  to  acknowledge  the  claim 
of  the  Spanish  king  that  the  whole  of  the  New  World 
belonged  to  Spain,  and  allowed  the  English  to  attack 
Jamaica  and  the  Spanish  possessions  in  the  West  Indies. 
That  is  how  England  conquered  her  first  possessions 
abroad. 

7.  After  its  capture  there  were  not  enough  settlers 
to  do  the  work  of  the  colony,  so  Cromwell  sent  a  lot  of 
Royalist  prisoners  out  to  colonise  it  and  to  work  in  the 
sugar  plantations.  A  great  many  negro  slaves  were 
also  brought  from  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  to  labour 
in  the  fields.  So  that  Jamaica  became  famous  for 
two  things — for  its  sugar,  and  as  a  great  market  for 
negro  slaves.     In  fact,  it  grew  to  be  the  chief  centre  of 


54     THE  GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

the  slave-trade,  which,  as  we  have  read,  was  begun  long 

before  by  John  Hawkins. 

8.  So  we  see  that  quite  early  in  the  century  the 

British  had  built  up  a  large  trade  all  over  the  world. 

In  addition  to  the  real  colonies  in  America,  they  had 

trading  stations  in   India  and   the  West  Indies,   and 

stopping-places,   like   St.  Helena   and  the   Bermudas, 

on  the  road  to  the  New  World  and  the  Far  East. 

-r 

CHAPTER  XI 

WAR  WITH  THE  BUTCH 

1.  Unfortunately,  not  long  after  they  began  trading 
with  India,  the  English  came  into  conflict  with  the 
Dutch.  In  those  days  traders  always  wanted  to  keep 
the  trade  with  a  particular  country  in  their  own  hands, 
and  to  prevent  anybody  else  from  taking  any  of  it  from 
them.  At  the  very  beginning  of  the  century,  while  the 
Dutch  and  English  East  India  Companies  were  still 
small,  there  was  plenty  of  room  for  them  both,  especially 
as  the  Dutch  were  busy  driving  out  the  Portuguese  who 
had  enjoyed  all  the  trade  for  a  hundred  years.  But,  by 
1623,  the  struggle  for  trade  had  become  so  fierce  that  we 
find  the  English  and  Dutch  coming  to  blows  with  each 
other  for  the  first  time.  One  of  the  most  important  of 
the  Dutch  trading  stations  was  at  Amboyna,  an  island 
in  the  East  Indies,  and  the  hatred  of  the  Dutch  for  the 
English  was  so  great  that,  finding  they  could  get  rid 
of  them  in  no  other  way,  they  seized  on  the  English 
merchants  and  put  them  to  death  because  they  had 
dared  to  trade  in  their  ports.     When  the  news  of  this 


WAR   WITH  THE   DUTCH  55 

massacre  reached  England  it  naturally  made  the  English 
very  angry,  but  war  did  not  break  out  at  once,  and 
both  Dutch  and  English  went  on  strengthening  their 
positions.  By  the  middle  of  the  century  the  Dutch 
had  almost  driven  the  Portuguese  out  of  the  East ;  they 
had  taken  Mauritius,  Ceylon,  and  Malacca,  and  set  up 
trading  stations  all  along  the  West  African  coast,  in  the 
Persian  Gulf,  and  in  Burma,  and  had  sailed  past  Aus- 
tralia, Tasmania,  and  New  Zealand.  But  they  were 
not  satisfied  to  keep  only  to  Eastern  seas.  In  1621 
they  founded  a  West  India  Company  in  the  hopes  of 
conquering  Brazil  from  the  Portuguese,  and  a  year  later 
they  planted  the  colony  of  New  Amsterdam  on  the 
river  Hudson,  where  New  York  now  stands. 

2.  But  at  last  war  between  the  Dutch  and  English 
could  be  delayed  no  longer.  They  each  wanted  the 
lion's  share  of  the  trade,  and  their  merchants  were 
competing  against  one  another  in  every  sea  and  every 
port.  One  people  or  the  other  had  to  take  the  second 
place,  for  even  in  the  great  New  World  that  had  been 
discovered,  there  did  not  seem  to  be  room  for  two  such 
daring  and  ambitious  peoples  to  trade  side  by  side  in 
peace.  It  was  the  English  who  brought  matters  to  a 
head  in  1651.  In  that  year  they  passed  the  Navigation 
Act,  which  declared  that  all  goods  coming  into  England 
must  be  carried  in  British  ships,  or  in  the  ships  of  the 
country  from  which  the  goods  came.  This  was  a  heavy 
blow  to  the  Dutch,  for  at  that  time  so  much  of  the 
trade  of  the  world  was  carried  in  their  vessels  that  they 
were  called  the  "  Waggoners  of  the  Sea  " ;  and  in  the 
next  year  war  broke  out.  The  struggle  lasted  for 
twenty-two    years,    during    which    there    were    three 


56     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

wars,  the  first  from  1652  to  1654,  when  Cromwell  was 
ruling  England  ;  the  second  from  1665  to  1667,  and 
the  third  from  1672  to  1674,  both  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  II. 

3.  All  the  fighting  in  these  wars  was  on  the  sea,  and 
sometimes  it  was  the  Dutch  and  sometimes  the  English 
who  won.  Both  sides  had  famous  admirals ;  the  Dutch 
were  led  by  Van  Tromp,  De  Ruyter,  and  De  Witt,  and 
the  English  by  Blake  and  Monk.  Many  fierce  battles 
were  fought.  These  sea-battles  were  very  different  from 
those  of  to-day.  Instead  of  fighting  with  huge  iron- 
clads and  torpedoes,  and  with  guns  which  can  sink  a 
ship  ten  miles  away,  they  had  to  use  clumsy  sailing 
vessels,  and  their  one  idea  was  to  get  quite  close  to  the 
enemy's  ships,  so  as  to  board  them  and  seize  them  after 
a  hand-to-hand  fight.  The  admirals,  too,  were  often 
just  as  good  soldiers  as  they  were  sailors.  Blake  him- 
self, one  of  the  most  famous  of  English  seamen,  fought 
in  all  Cromwell's  wars  on  land,  and  had  never  been  on 
board  a  man-of-war  until  he  was  fifty  years  old. 

4.  When  the  war  first  broke  out  the  Dutch  were 
the  more  successful.  The  English  themselves  said  that 
the  Dutch  fleet  was  better  managed  than  their  own. 
"  The  Dutch  do  fight  in  very  good  order  and  we  in  none 
at  all."  But,  though  often  defeated,  the  English  would 
not  give  in.  As  De  Witt  said :  "  These  men  may  be 
killed,  but  they  will  never  be  beaten."  Thus,  in  1652, 
Van  Tromp  surprised  Blake  off  the  Downs,  and  after  a 
furious  battle,  claimed  a  victory  and  sailed  up  the 
Channel  with  a  broom  tied  to  his  masthead,  boasting 
that  he  had  swept  the  English  off  the  sea.  But  next 
year  the  English  were  ready ,  to  give  battle  again,  and 


WAR   WITH   THE   DUTCH  57 

Blake  utterly  defeated  Van  Tromp,  and  then,  in  his 
turn,  sailed  about  with  a  whip -lash  streaming  from  his 
mast,  to  show  how  he  had  whipped  the  Dutch.  And 
so  the  wars  dragged  on,  first  one  side  winning  and 
then  the  other.  In  1666,  the  English  destroyed  the 
Dutch  fleet  off  the  coast  of  Holland,  and  in  the  next 
year  the  Dutch  sailed  up  the  Thames  and  burnt  three 
of  the  English  men-of-war.  At  the  end  of  each  of  the 
wars,  though  neither  side  could  claim  a  very  decided 
victory,  it  was  England  who  gained  nearly  all  the 
advantages.  After  the  first  war  the  Dutch  had  to  allow 
the  British  to  share  in  the  trade  with  India  and  the 
East,  and  in  the  trade  with  the  Baltic  as  well,  which  they 
had  claimed  as  their  own  monopoly.  In  the  second 
war,  they  lost  their  colony  of  New  Amsterdam  in 
America,  which  the  English  renamed  New  York,  after 
the  Duke  of  York,  who  was  King  Charles'  brother  and 
a  great  admiral.  And,  at  the  very  end  of  the  struggle, 
Holland  had  to  pay  a  large  sum  of  money  and  acknow- 
ledge that  England  held  the  first  place  on  the  sea. 

5.  This  war  shows  two  things.  First,  it  shows  how 
England  was  helped  by  being  an  island.  England  was 
weaker  than  Holland  when  the  struggle  began,  but  she 
was  guarded  by  her  sea-walls,  and  was  able  to  throw  all 
her  strength  into  the  war  without  fearing  an  onslaught 
from  behind.  But  Holland  was  not  an  island.  If  she 
put  out  all  her  force  against  the  English,  it  meant  that 
she  was  leaving  an  open  door  behind  her  through 
which  her  powerful  enemies,  the  Spaniards  and  the 
French,  could  attack  her.  So  she  had  by  far  the 
hardest  task,  and,  bravely  as  she  fought,  in  the  long 
run  she  had  to  give  in. 


58     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

6.  In  the  second  place,  the  Dutch  wars  show  the 
importance  of  sea -power.  Once  England  had  won 
command  of  the  sea,  not  only  was  she  safe  from  her 
enemies^  she  was  also  able  to  carry  her  trade  to  what- 
ever part  of  the  world  she  liked,  and  nobody  could  stop 
her.  This  was  a  tremendous  advantage.  While  other 
nations  were  righting  with  each  other,  and  feared  to 
send  their  merchants  and  ships  on  long  expeditions  to 
the  East  or  the  New  World,  because  they  might  be 
attacked  and  captured  on  the  way,  the  English  were 
able  to  spread  their  trade  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe, 
without  interference,  and  so  grew  rich  and  powerful. 
We  shall  see  later  on  that,  whenever  any  of  her  enemies 
wanted  to  injure  her,  they  had  first  of  all  to  build  a 
navy  of  their  own  and  destroy  her  fleet,  because  other- 
wise they  were  unable  to  do  her  any  harm.  So  all  the 
great  wars  of  England,  from  the  days  nearly  250  years 
ago,  when  the  Dutch  were  forced  to  give  up  the  first 
place  to  her  fleet,  have  always  been  fought  to  keep  her 
supremacy  by  sea.  For  it  is  sea-power  alone  that  pro- 
tects England  and  the  Empire  from  invasion,  and 
which  keep  open  the  roads  between  all  its  different 
parts. 

CHAPTER  XII 

SUMMARY  OF  THE  SECOND  PERIOD 

1.  We  have  now  come  to  the  end  of  the  second 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Empire.  It  is  called  the 
period  of  Colonisation  by  Settlement,  because  it  is  the 
time  during  which  the  English  began  to  found  colonies 


SUMMARY  OF  THE   SECOND   PERIOD        59 

of  settlers  in  the  empty  lands  of  the  New  World.  Let 
us  go  back  and  see  what  has  happened  in  the  last 
hundred  years. 

2.  In  1600  the  English  did  not  possess  one'mile  of 
land  outside  the  British  Isles,  for  the  two  colonies  they 
had  tried  to  found  in  Virginia  and  in  Newfoundland 
had  both  failed.  But  by  1700  the  foundations  of  the 
British  Empire  had  been  laid  all  the  world  over.  A 
long  line  of  settlements  had  sprung  up  along  the 
eastern  shore  of  North  America.  Valuable  trading 
stations  had  been  gained  in  the  West  Indies,  on  the 
coast  of  Africa,  and  in  India  and  the  East  Indian 
Islands.  And,  still  more  important,  England  had 
been  engaged  in  a  second  great  struggle  for  sea-power 
and  had  come  out  victorious.  The  first,  in  1588,  had 
been  with  the  Spaniards.  The  second,  from  1652  to 
16I4_with  the  Dutch. 

3.  Now  let  us  see  what  had  happened  to  the  rivals 
of  England.  "You  remember  that  at  the  beginning  of 
the  period  there  were  only  two  great  Empires — the  land 
Empire  of  the  Spanish  and  the  trade  Empire  of  the 
Portuguese.  In  1700  Spain  was  still  a  great  power, 
and  still  had  broad  possessions,  but  she  had  lost  the 
first  place,  for  the  English  held  command  of  the  sea 
and  had  taken  Jamaica.  Portugal  had  fallen  still  more 
sadly  by  1700.  She  kept  her  Empire  in  Brazil  and 
some  lands  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  but  she  had  been 
nearly  driven  out  of  the  East,  her  own  discovery,  by 
the  English  and  the  Dutch.  France  and  Holland,  on 
the  other  hand,  who,  like  England,  had  made  hardly 
any  mark  in  the  New  World  in  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  had  come  to  the  front  in  this  last  hundred 


60     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

years.  France  had  been  busy  spreading  her  settle- 
ments up  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  founding  new  ones 
along  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  By  1700  she  had 
taken  possession  of  the  provinces  now  known  as  Nova 
Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and  Quebec  in  Canada,  and 
of  Louisiana  in  the  south,  and  had  laid  claim  to  all  the 
country  at  the  back  of  the  English  colonies,  from  the 
Great  Lakes  of  Canada  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi. 
Holland  had  turned  all  her  strength  to  trade,  so  that 
during  the  early  part  of  the  century  she  had  the 
strongest  navy  and  was  the  greatest  trading  power  in 
the  world.  But  there  was  such  rivalry  between  the 
English  and  the  Dutch  that  at  last  war  broke  out 
between  them.  In  the  end  the  English  were  victorious, 
won  some  of  Holland's  most  valuable  possessions,  and 
gained  command  of  the  sea. 

4.  Let  us  have  another  look  at  the  British  posses- 
sions. We  see  that  they  were  of  two  kinds.  In  the 
first  place  there  were  the  settlements  along  the 
American  coast.  These  were  true  colonies,  for  the 
people  who  lived  in  them  were  English  settlers  who 
had  left  their  own  country  to  make  new  homes  over 
the  sea,  and  the  lands  they  chose  were  empty  when 
they  arrived,  except  for  a  few  wandering  tribes  of 
Indians.  The  life  of  the  settlers  in  these  colonies  was 
very  like  the  life  of  people  in  England,  for  they  took 
with  them  their  religion,  their  language,  their  laws,  and 
their  system  of  government.  So  these  colonies  might 
truly  be  called  England  over  the  sea.  At  first  they 
were  small  and  .thinly  populated,  but  they  grew 
steadily  larger  and  more  prosperous,  especially  after 
people  began  to  stream  out  to  them  in  order  to  escape 


SUMMARY   OF   THE   SECOND   PERIOD        61 

from  religious  persecution  and  civil  wars  at  home.  So 
gradually  the  Indians  were  driven  farther  and  farther 
back,  until  finally  the  English  settlers  found  themselves 
unable  to  extend  farther  along  the  coast  to  the  north 
or  south,  because  they  were  face  to  face  with  white 
settlers  of  another  race,  the  French.  And  we  shall  see 
later  on  how  they  met  the  French  again  when  they 
began  to  expand  inland  towards  the  west. 

5.  The  second  kind  of  British  possessions  were  the 
lands  they  had  conquered,  and  the  stations  they  had 
founded  for  the  sake  of  trade.  When  the  English 
arrived  in  places  like  India,  or  Jamaica,  or  the  East 
Indian  Islands,  they  found  there  already  a  large 
population,  and  there  was  little  or  no  room  for  many 
white  people  to  settle  down  as  farmers.  Moreover, 
most  of  these  countries  were  in  the  tropics,  and  were 
so  hot  that  white  people  were  unable  to  live  and 
work,  or  bring  up  strong  and  healthy  families  in  them. 
But  gold,  jewels,  spices,  foodstuffs,  and  other  valuable 
things  were  to  be  bought  cheaply  from  the  natives, 
and  could  afterwards  be  sold  for  a  high  price 
in  Europe.  So  a  few  white  people — traders,  and 
soldiers,  and  government  officials — went  to  live  in  these 
countries,  which  were  called  dependencies.  The  de- 
pendencies, therefore,  were  not  true  colonies,  but  to 
begin  with  were  possessions  valued  chiefly  because  of 
their  trade. 

6.  So  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  history  of  the 
Empire  we  notice  two  great  features  which  have  stood 
out  ever  since.  One  is  the  difference  between  the 
colonies,  or  dominions,  the  lands  which  are  the  homes 
of  white  men  and  women,  and  the  dependencies,  which 


62     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

are  the  homes  of  black  and  brown  people,  and  only 
governed  by  white  people.  The  other  is  that  from  the 
moment  England  began  to  possess  lands  across  the 
sea,  she  had  to  fight  for  sea-power.  If  England  had 
not  been  able  to  win  the  command  of  the  sea  from  the 
Dutch,  she  would  probably  have  lost  her  trade  with  the 
East,  and  instead  of  gaining  some  of  their  most  valu- 
able lands,  would  have  had  to  give  up  her  own.  As  it 
was  she  held  the  sea  roads,  and  could  protect  her 
colonies  and  strengthen  her  defences,  so  that  she 
was  ready  for  the  next  enemy  who  came  to  attack 
the  Empire. 

Important  Names  and  Dates  in  the  Second  Period 

1583.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  tries  to  found  a  colony  in  Newfound- 
land. 

1585.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  tries  to  found  a  colony  in  Virginia. 

1600.  The  East  India  Company  is  established. 

1602.  The  Dutch  East  India  Company  is  established. 

1607.  Virginia  successfully  colonised. 

1618.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  executed. 

1G20.  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  sail  in  the  Mayflower  and  found  the 
New  England  Colonies. 

1623.  Dutch  massacre  English  traders  at  Amboyna. 

1623.  St.  Kitts,  "the  Mother  Colony"  of  the  West  Indies, 
founded. 

1629.  Massachusetts  colonised  by  Puritans. 

1634.  The  colony  of  Maryland  founded  by  Catholics. 

1640.  East  India  Company  establishes  a  station  at  Madras. 

1651.  St.  Helena  is  made  a  port  of  call  on  way  to  India. 

1651.  Navigation  Acts  passed. 

1652-54.  First  Dutch  War. 

1655.  Jamaica  taken  from  Spain. 

1661.  East  India  Company  founds  a  station  at  Bombay. 

1663.  Colonies  of  North  and  South  Carolina  founded  in  America. 


SUMMARY   OF   THE   SECOND   PERIOD       63 

1665-67.  Second  Dutch  War. 

1665.  Dutch  colony  of  New  Amsterdam  [New  York]  in  America 

taken. 
1672-74.  Third  Dutch  War. 
1681.  Pennsylvania  colonised  in  America. 
1686.  East  India  Company  found  a  station  at  Calcutta. 
1689.  James  II.  deposed. 


PART    III 

PERIOD  OF  COLONISATION  BY  CONQUEST 
EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  FIRST  STRUGGLE  WITH 
FRANCE  » 

"  This  England  never  did  nor  never  shall 
Lie  at  the  proud  foot  of  a  conqueror  ; 
Come  the  three  corners  of  the  world  in  arms, 
And  we  shall  shock  them :  nought  shall  make  us  rue, 
If  England  to  itself  do  rest  but  true." 

— Shakespeare,  King  John. 

1.  We  have  now  come  to  a  new  and  most  important 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Empire,  which  we  call  the 
period  of  Expansion  by  Conquest.  We  have  seen  how 
England  laid  the  foundation  of  her  Empire  by  peaceful 
settlement ;  we  have  seen,  too,  how  she  wrestled  with 
Holland  for  the  first  place  on  the  sea,  and  how  in  the 
end  she  won  it.  Now  we  shall  have  to  learn  how, 
during  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Empire  grew  as 
the  result  of  war,  how  for  more  than  a  hundred  years 
England  was  engaged  in  a  desperate  struggle  with  a 
new  and  powerful  enemy,  France;  and  how  what  she 

1  See  maps  on  pp.  71  and  93, 
64 


U..T ■■'    .. 


v/^A_5sJ__V_ 


l^LL^lliLll^wlLiS 


THE   FIRST   STRUGGLE   WITH   FRANCE      65 

fought   for  was  her   empire   and   the   preservation  of 
her  free  system  of  government. 

2.  The  new  period  begins  in  1689.  You  remember 
from  your  English  history  how  King  James  II.  was 
driven  from  the  throne  by  his  subjects,  and  how 
William  of  Orange,  the  Stadtholder  of  Holland,  came 
over  and  reigned  in  England  instead.  After  this  the 
l)utch  and  English,  who  had  previously  been  enemies, 
became  friends.  And  it  was  lucky  they  did  so,  because 
it  was  not  very  long  before  they  had  to  defend  them- 
selves against  France.  King  Louis  XIV.  of  France  was 
an  old  enemy  of  the  Dutch,  and  now  he  annoyed  the 
English  by  taking  the  part  of  James  II.  and  promising 
to  help  him  to  win  back  his  crown.  Louis  XIV.  was  a 
very  ambitious  man,  and  was  not  content  with  being 
the  most  powerful  king  in  the  Old  World,  but  he  wanted 
to  make  himself  the  most  powerful  king  in  the  New 
World  too.  His  ambitions  threatened  his  neighbours, 
so  war  broke  out  almost  at  once  between  France  on  the 
one  hand,  and  England  and  Holland  on  the  other.  The 
struggle  between  England  and  France,  which  thus  began 
in  1689,  went  on  through  one  war  after  another,  until 
the  battle  of  Waterloo  in  1815.  Before  beginning  to 
learn  about  this  war,  let  us  stop  and  see  what  France 
had  been  doing  up  to  this  time  in  the  New  World. 

3.  You  remember  that  Canada  was  discovered  in  1534 
by  Jacques  Cartier,  who  tried  to  found  a  colony  there. 
This  colony  did  not  succeed  any  better  than  the  first 
English  one,  and  for  seventy  years  afterwards  the  French 
left  Canada  alone.  In  1604  a  new  settlement  was  made 
near  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  on  the  land 
along  the  southern  shore,  which  the   French  named 


66     THE   GKOWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

Acadie.1  But  the  true  founder  of  French  Canada  was 
Champlain,  because  he  firmly  established  the  French 
in  that  country,  so  that  he  was  called  the  Father  of 
New  France.  It  was  he  who  built  the  fort  of  Quebec 
on  a  magnificent  rock  overlooking  the  St.  Lawrence, 
and  created  a  settlement  about  it,  and  Quebec  has  been 
the  capital  of  the  French  part  of  Canada  ever  since. 
He  and  his  followers  also  explored  the  country  far  up 
the  river  and  about  the  Great  Lakes,  and  wherever 
they  went  they  claimed  the  land  for  France.  Cham- 
plain  himself  was  always  hoping  to  find  a  way  to 
China  across  America ;  he  little  knew  what  miles  and 
miles  of  land  there  were  between  him  and  the  Pacific 
Ocean. 

4.  The  whole  of  that  part  of  North  America  was 
covered  with  forests,  and  threaded  by  countless  rivers 
and  lakes.  The  forests  were  full  of  wild  animals  whose 
fur  could  be  sold  for  high  prices  in  Europe,  and  the 
rivers  and  lakes  were  like  roads  up  which  the  hunters 
could  row  in  their  canoes.  So  the  French  colonists  soon 
became  great  hunters  and  skilled  woodsmen,  and  spent 
most  of  their  time  exploring,  or  hunting  and  trading 
furs  with  the  Indians.  They  sent  out  a  great  many 
missionaries  too,  and  many  of  the  Indians  were  con- 
verted and  became  Christians ;  but  sometimes  the 
French  were  attacked  by  the  Indians,  and  then  they 
had  to  fight  for  their  lives. 

5.  After  a  time  the  French  colonists  came  across 
other  white  men,  the  New  England  settlers  to  the  south. 
As  the  French  pushed  south  the  English  pushed  north, 

1  Acadie  is  now  •  the  territory  known  as  Nova  Scotia  and  New 
Brunswick. 


THE   FIRST   STRUGGLE   WITH   FRANCE      67 

and  neither  side  would  give  way.  So  all  through  the 
seventeenth  century  we  see  the  two  peoples  growing 
more  and  more  angry  and  jealous  of  each  other,  and 
always  ready  to  fight  and  raid  each  other's  lands.  In 
1613  Samuel  Argall  of  Virginia  sacked  the  French  town 
of  Port  Royal  in  Acadie.  A  few  years  later  the  English 
took  Quebec  and  conquered  almost  the  whole  of  New 
France ;  but  in  1632  a  treaty  was  made  between  Eng- 
land and  France,  by  which  the  conquests  were  restored, 
and  after  that  there  was  peace  for  a  time.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  century,  however,  the  English  found 
that  the  French  explorers  had  pushed  their  way  far 
into  the  heart  of  America  and  were  claiming  all  the 
land  they  discovered  for  their  own.  La  Salle  had  even 
crossed  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Mississippi,  and 
sailing  down  this  mighty  river  to  its  mouth  in  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  had  called  the  country  round  about 
it  Louisiana,  after  King  Louis.  This  alarmed  the 
New  England  settlers  very  much,  because  they  saw 
that  if  the  French  were  once  allowed  to  take  possession 
of  the  inland  parts  of  America,  they  themselves  would 
soon  be  shut  in  between  the  Alleghany  Mountains  and 
the  sea. 

6.  It  was  just  at  this  moment  that  William  III. 
was  made  King  of  England,  and  that  England  and 
Holland  went  to  war  with  France,  as  we  have  already 
seen.  This  first  conflict  between  England  and  France 
falls  into  two  parts,  with  a  few  years  peace  in  between. 
The  first  war  lasted  from  1689  to  1697,  and  was  incon- 
clusive. During  it  there  was  fighting  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic.  In  America  it  left  matters  much  as  they 
were  before,  as  first  one  side  and  then  the  other  won 


68     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

battles.  The  English  conquered  Acadie  and  later  on 
they  lost  it.  The  French,  under  their  governor  Fron- 
tenao,  took  the  forts  belonging  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany and  then  were  driven  out  again.  The  most 
important  battle  took  place  in  Europe  when  the  English 
and  Dutch  defeated  the  French  fleet  at  La  Hogue  in 
1692.  Although  this  battle  did  not  immediately  bring 
the  war  to  a  close,  it  was  important,  because  it  showed 
that  the  French  attack  on  the  English  sea-power  had 
failed,  and  that  the  English  still  held  the  command 
of  the  sea  which  they  had  won  from  the  Dutch  a 
few  years  before.  We  shall  see  how  vital  this  was 
to  be  to  England  a  few  years  later  on.  After  this 
the  war  dragged  on  for  several  years,  as  the  English 
were  too  strong  by  sea  and  the  French  too  strong  by 
land,  for  either  side  to  be  able  thoroughly  to  defeat 
the  other.  But  in  1697  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick  was 
made,  which  brought  it  to  an  end,  by  arranging  that 
each  side  was  to  give  back  to  the  other  all  the  con- 
quests it  had  made. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  WAR  OF  THE   SPANISH   SUCCESSION 

1.  But  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick  was  only  a  truce. 
Five  years  later  another,  and  far  fiercer,  war  began, 
which  lasted  from  1702  to  1713.  This  was  called 
the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession.  The  King  of 
Spain  had  died  in  1700,  and  as  he  had  no  son,  he 
left  his  throne  to  the  grandson  of  the  King  of  France. 


THE   WAR   OF  THE   SPANISH   SUCCESSION     69 

At  that  time  France  and  Spain  were  each  so  powerful, 
both  in  Europe  and  the  New  World,  that  England 
and  Holland  were  extremely  alarmed.  England  was 
afraid  that  if  France  and  Spain  were  united  they 
would  be  able  to  seize  her  colonies  and  stop  all  her 
trade.  Holland  was  still  more  afraid,  for  she  knew  that 
they  would  not  be  content  with  taking  her  colonies  and 
trade,  but  would  want  to  conquer  her  own  country  as 
well.  So  England  and  Holland  joined  together  once 
more,  and  entered  into  an  alliance  with  the  princes  of 
Germany  to  prevent  the  union  of  the  crowns  of  France 
and  Spain. 

2.  War  broke  out  in  1702.  Most  of  the  fighting  was 
done  in  Europe,  where  the  great  Duke  of  Marlborough 
won  his  splendid  victories.  The  French  had  grown  so 
powerful  that  they  had  come  to  believe  they  could 
never  be  beaten,  until  Marlborough  proved  that  they 
were  wrong.  Again  and  again  he  defeated  them. 
He  never  fought  a  battle  which  he  did  not  win,  nor 
besieged  a  fortress  which  he  did  not  take,  so  that  at 
last  France  had  no  more  armies  left.  Unfortunately 
we  have  not  room  to  tell  you  all  about  these  great 
battles  here.  They  belong  to  the  history  of  Europe, 
but  they  are  important  to  the  Empire  too,  for  they 
humbled  the  pride  of  King  Louis  and  broke  the  power 
of  France. 

3.  There  were  sea  battles  too  in  this  war.  In  1704 
Sir  George  Rooke  took  Gibraltar,  the  great  rock  in  the 
south  of  Spain,  which  stands  out  like  a  sentinel  into 
the  sea  to  guard  the  gateway  to  the  Mediterranean. 
Gibraltar  was  badly  fortified,  and  it  soon  had  to  give  in 
to  the  fire  of  Rooke's  guns.     At  first  the  people  of  Eng- 


70     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH  EMPIRE 

land  hardly  understood  the  value  of  their  capture,  but 
gradually  they  came  to  see,  as  one  of  Rooke's  admirals 
had  said,  that  "  it  was  the  most  advantageous  conquest 
that  could  be  made  for  the  benefit  of  the  trade  as  well 
as  the  fleet  during  war  with  France  and  Spain."  It  was 
indeed  a  great  gain  to  the  Empire ;  for  when  England 
won  Gibraltar,  she  won  the  key  to  the  Mediterranean, 
and  her  fleets  could  sail  in  and  out  as  they  liked,  so 
that  she  became  mistress  of  that  inland  sea  as  well  as 
of  the  other  oceans  of  the  world.  Four  years  later  she 
took  the  island  of  Minorca,  in  the  Mediterranean,  which 
became  a  very  useful  station  for  her  fleet. 

4.  In  the  New  World,  too,  there  was  fighting  between 
the  French  and  English.  The  English  invaded  the 
French  settlements  several  times,  and  in  1710  the 
capital  of  Acadie  was  taken.  A  fleet  was  also  sent  out 
to  conquer  Canada,  but  some  of  the  ships  were  wrecked 
in  a  storm,  and  the  expedition  came  to  nothing. 

5.  In  1713-  the  long  war  was  brought  to  an  end  by 
the  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  France  was  exhausted,  her  fleet 
was  destroyed,  and  all  her  armies  had  been  defeated  by 
Marlborough,  so  the  treaty  was  very  favourable  to  the 
English.  In  America  England  gained  Newfoundland, 
Nova  Scotia,  which  was  the  south-eastern  corner  of 
Canada,  and  the  land  round  Hudson's  Bay.  In  Europe, 
she  kept  Gibraltar  and  Minorca,  which  she  had  taken 
from  Spain,  and  won  the  right  to  share  in  the  Spanish 
slave-trade  as  well.  This  treaty  put  an  end  to  the  first 
struggle  between  France  and  England,  which  had  only 
been  interrupted  for  five  years  by  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick. 
The  war  had  been  brought  on  because  the  ambition  of 
Louis  XIV.  was  dangerous  to  both  England  and  Holland, 


America  after  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  1713 


GEORGE  PHILIP*  SON   LV 
Longman*.    Green,  <t  Co.  Ionian,.  Jftw&rk.  Bombay A  Calcutta,. 


72     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 


and  at  the  end  of  the  struggle  France  had  been  beaten, 
had  lost  some  of  her  colonies  in  North  America,  and 
had  been  made  to  agree  that  the  crowns  of  France  and 
Spain  should  not  be  held  by  the  same  king.  Spain 
had  lost  Gibraltar  and  Minorca.  Holland,  though  she 
was  on  the  winning  side,  was  so  worn  out  by  the  long 

struggle  that  she 
was  never  able 
to  win  back  her 
former  greatness. 
England,  on  the 
other  hand,  had 
gained  the  spoils. 
She  had  won  new 
lands  in  America, 
she  had  taken 
strong  stations 
for  her  navy  like 
Gibraltar,  and 
above  all,  she- 
had  proved  more 
stoutly  than  ever 
her  claim  to  the 
command  of  the 
sea.  A  great 
naval  writer  says :  w  Before  that  time  England  was 
one  of  the  sea-powers ;  after  it  she  was  the  sea-power, 
without  any  second." 

6.  Before  we  go  on  to  the  second  struggle  between 
France  and  England  in  the  eighteenth  century,  we  must 
stop  to  notice  two  important  events  which  had  happened 
during  the  war.    In  1700  the  first  Englishman,  Dampier, 


William  Dampier 


THE   WAR   OF   THE   SPANISH   SUCCESSION     71 

visited  Australia.  Long  before,  the  Portuguese,  the 
Spaniards,  and  the  Dutch  had  caught  sight  of  this 
unknown  land ;  but  Dam  pier  was  the  first  man  who 
ever  tried  to  explore  it.  But  after  he  had  landed  the 
country  seemed  to  him  so  sandy  and  waterless  that  he 
sailed  away,  and  no  one  thought  much  more  about  it 
till  Captain  Cook  explored  it  again  eighty  years  later. 

7.  The  other  important  event  was  the  Union  of 
England  and  Scotland  in  1707.  The  crowns  of  the  two 
countries  had  been  joined  ever  since  1603,  when  King 
James  of  Scotland  became  King  of  England  too,  and 
called  himself  James  I.  It  was  at  this  time  that  we 
find  the  beginning  of  the  Union  Jack ;  for  King  James 
ordered  the  cross  of  St.  Andrew  to  be  added  to  the  cross 
of  St.  George,  and  the  new  flag  was  called  the  Union 
Jack,  in  memory  of  the  first  king  who  reigned  over  both 
England  and  Scotland.  For  a  hundred  years  after  this, 
each  country  kept  its  own  parliament,  and  it  was  not 
till  1707  that  England  and  Scotland  were  really  joined 
together  so  as  to  make  one  country.  In  that  year  the 
wise  men  of  both  countries  met  together  and  decided 
to  form  one  parliament  for  the  United  Kingdom;  for 
the  Scots  wished  to  share  in  the  great  empire  of  England 
and  its  trade,  and  the  English  wanted  the  help  of  the 
Scots  in  their  foreign  wars  and  in  defending  and 
colonising  their  possessions  across  the  seas.  So,  after 
1707,  the  kingdom  of  England  became  the  kingdom 
of  Great  Britain,  and  the  English  Empire  became  the 
British  Empire. 


74     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 


CHAPTER   XV 

SECOND    STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  FRANCE  AND 
ENGLAND 

"  'Tis  true  that  we  are  in  great  danger ; 
The  greater  therefore  should  our  courage  be." 

— Shakespeare,  Henry  V. 

1.  After  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  nothing  very  important 
in  the  history  of  the  Empire  happened  for  nearly  twenty 
years.  Louis  XIV.,  whose  ambitions  had  brought  on 
the  last  war,  died  two  years  after  peace  was  signed, 
and  his  successor  was  anxious  for  peace.  Spain,  who 
could  not  forgive  England  for  having  taken  Gibraltar, 
made  one  attempt  to  win  it  back  ;  but  the  other  nations 
would  not  allow  her  to  break  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht,  and 
so  her  attempt  failed.  In  1739,  however,  the  old  quarrel 
broke  out  aoain.  The  British  at  this  time  carried 
on  a  great  smuggling  trade  with  the  Spanish  colonies, 
which  Spain  was  determined  to  stop ;  so  she  claimed 
the  right  to  search  all  British  ships  on  the  high  seas. 
If  the  English  had  let  her  do  this,  their  trade  with  the 
West  Indies  would  have  been  ruined,  and  rather  than 
give  way,  they  went  to  war.  But  the  Spanish  war  of 
1739  was  only  the  prelude  to  a  new  struggle  between 
France  and  England,  for  the  next  year  it  grew  into  a 
much  greater  conflict,  in  which  most  of  the  other 
countries  took  part.  This  was  called  the  War  of  the 
Austrian  Succession,  in  which,  once  again,  England  and 
France  found   themselves   on  opposite  sides ;  and  we 


FRANCE  AND   ENGLAND  75 

shall  see  how  the  struggle  between  them  spread  all  over 
the  world,  so  that  they  were  fighting,  not  only  in 
Europe  alone,  but  in  America,  on  the  high  seas,  and  in 
far-off  India  as  well.  As  in  the  previous  struggle, 
England's  great  fear  was  lest  France  should  become 
sufficiently  powerful  to  seize  England's  possessions  in 
the  New  World,  and  deprive  her  of  the  sea-power  on 
which  her  independence  rested. 

2.  The  war  began  in  1740  when  France  agreed 
to  help  Spain  to  win  back  Gibraltar  and  Minorca,  and 
to  attack  the  British  colonies  in  America.  England 
soon  found  that  it  was  France,  and  not  Spain,  which 
was  her  most  important  enemy.  This  second  struggle, 
like  the  previous  one,  fell  into  two  halves.  The 
first  half,  as  in  the  earlier  case,  was  indecisive, 
and  was  brought  to  an  end  in  1748  by  the  Treaty 
of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  This  treaty  was  really  only  a 
truce,  entered  into  because  both  sides  were  too  ex- 
hausted to  bring  the  war  to  a  decisive  close ;  so  each 
side  returned  to  the  other  the  conquests  it  had  made. 
Thus  the  real  question  of  whether  France  or  England 
was  to  be  supreme  in  the  New  World  was  left  unsettled. 

3.  On  these  conditions  no  lasting  peace  could  be 
made,  and  eight  years  later,  in  1756,  the  conflict  broke 
out  again.  This  second  half  of  the  war  is  called  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  and  is  almost  the  most  important  of 
all  the  wars  that  England  has  fought  in  defence  of  her 
Empire.  In  the  beginning,  France  was  much  stronger 
than  England,  but,  as  in  the  last  war,  she  divided  her 
strength  and  her  attention  between  two  aims,  while 
England  thought  only  of  one:  England  wanted  to 
maintain  her  supremacy  by  sea,  and  to  keep  her  posses- 


76     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

sions  in  the  New  World  ;  France  wanted  the  first  place 
in  the  New  World  and  in  the  Old  World  as  well ;  so, 
besides  fighting  England  by  sea,  she  took  a  great  share 
in  the  war  in  Europe  which  was  to  settle  whether 
Austria  or  Prussia  was  to  be  master  of  Germany. 

4.  At  that  time  the  affairs  of  Great  Britain  were  in 
the  hands  of  William  Pitt,  who  is  better  known  as  the 
Earl  of  Chatham,  to  distinguish  him  from  his  son,  the 
younger  William  Pitt.  Chatham,  who  became  Prime 
Minister  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  was  one  of  the 
greatest  statesmen  that  England  has  ever  had.  Before 
all  things  he  loved  his  country;  he  saw  clearly  the 
dangers  that  beset  her.  "  I  know  that  I  can  save  this 
country,"  he  said,  "  and  I  know  that  no  other  man  can." 
While  other  men  were  thinking  only  of  the  difficulties 
and  dangers  of  their  own  time,  Chatham  looked  far 
ahead.  He  saw  that  the  war  was  not  being  fought  to 
defend  Britain  alone.  He  looked  out  across  the  sea  and 
saw  her  possessions  in  every  land,  and  understood  what 
a  mighty  future  was  in  front  of  her,  if  only  all  these  pos- 
sessions could  be  kept  under  the  Union  Jack.  And  so 
his  whole  life  was  spent  in  the  service  of  his  country, 
and  he  breathed  his  own  high  spirit  into  his  fellow- 
countrymen.  As  one  of  his  friends  said  of  him :  ';  No 
one  ever  left  Mr.  Pitt's  closet  who  did  not  feel 
himself  braver  when  he  came  out  than  when  he 
went  in." 

5.  When  the  Seven  Years'  War  broke  out,  France 
took  the  part  of  Austria  against  Prussia,  so  Chatham 
sided  with  Frederick  the  Great  of  Prussia.  He  saw  that 
even  France  would  never  be  able  to  carry  on  a  struggle  in 
Europe  and  in  America  and  India  at  the  same  time, 


FRANCE   AND   ENGLAND  77 

and  he  determined  that  England  should  not  make  the 


The  Right  Hon.  William  Pitt,  Paymaster  op  the  Forces, 
afterwards  earl  of  chatham 

(From  a  painting  by  Hoare) 

same   mistake.     So  he  decided  to  help  Frederick  the 
Great,  by  sending  him  money  to  raise  armies  for  his 


78     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

wars  in  Europe,  while  he  kept  all  the  fighting  power  of 
England  for  her  own  wars  against  France,  in  America 
and  India,  and  on  the  sea. 

6.  The  first  thing  Chatham  had  to  do  was  to 
destroy  the  French  fleet,  so  that  England  might  be 
able  to  pursue  the  struggle  over  the  sea,  without 
fear  of  an  attack  from  behind.  In  the  earlier  part  of 
the  war  the  French  had  learnt  that  they  could  never 
defeat  England,  or  take  her  possessions  from  her,  unless 
they  had  a  fleet  that  could  destroy  the  British  fleet ;  so 
during  the  years  of  peace  they  had  built  themselves  a 
strong  navy.  At  first  they  won  some  victories;  they 
took  Minorca,  then  they  tried  to  send  reinforcements 
to  Canada,  and  finally  they  made  a  bold  plan  to  invade 
England  herself.  But  England  had  a  famous  admiral, 
the  greatest  since  the  days  of  Blake — the  great  Lord 
Hawke.  Hawke's  great  idea  in  fighting  was  that  "  the 
enemy  must  never  be  allowed  to  escape."  So  when  he 
discovered  that  the  French  were  preparing  to  send  help 
to  their  colonies  in  Canada,  he  fell  upon  their  fleet  of 
five  battleships  and  forty  transports  just  as  they  were 
ready  to  start.  As  he  himself  wrote  afterwards :  "At 
five  next  morning  I  saw  them  all  aground."  The 
French  in  Canada  cried  in  vain  for  help,  for  not  one  of 
all  that  fleet  started  on  its  journey. 

7.  The  same  fate  befell  the  fleet  that  the  French  had 
collected  for  the  invasion  of  England.  Unfortunately 
for  them  they  allowed  it  to  become  divided  into 
two  parts.  One  of  these  squadrons  was  defeated  by 
Admiral  Boscawen  off  the  coast  of  Portugal.  The  other 
managed  to  escape,  but  Hawke  was  not  to  be  denied, 
and  chased  it  northwards  until  he  came  up  with  it  at 


V 


80     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

the  mouth  of  Quiberon  Bay,  on  the  west  coast  of  France. 
The  question  then  was,  could  he  attack  it,  for  a  furious 
gale  was  raging,  and  he  had  not  even  a  chart  of  that 
dangerous  coast.  But  the  enemy  was  within  his  reach, 
and  that  was  enough  for  Hawke.  His  pilot  advised 
him  to  go  no  further,  but  he  said,  "  You  have  done 
your  duty  by  warning  me ;  now  obey  my  orders  and 
lay  me  alongside  the  French  admiral."  A  great  battle 
was  fought,  the  French  fleet  was  completely  destroyed, 
and  so  the  fear  of  invasion  passed  away.  Hawke  lived 
many  years  longer,  but  he  never  fought  another  battle, 
for  there  was  no  enemy's  fleet  left  for  him  to  fight. 
Chatham  was  therefore  able  to  turn  all  his  attention  to 
the  wars  in  the  East  and  the  West,  for  the  British  navy 
held  the  command  of  the  sea. 


CHAPTEE  XVI 

SEVEN   YEARS'  WAR  IN  AMERICA1 

1.  The  rest  of  the  war  falls  into  two  parts — the  struggle 
in  America  and  the  war  in  India.  In  America  the  old 
quarrel  between  the  French  and  English  as  to  which 
was  to  be  the  chief  power  in  the  New  World  was  still 
unsettled.  You  remember  that  the  English  colonies 
stretched  along  the  coast,  from  Florida  in  the  south 
to  the  Gulf  of  the  St.  Lawrence  in  the  north ;  and  that 
the  French  held  Canada  from  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  up  to  the  Great  Lakes,  and  Louisiana  along 
the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.     But  if  you  look  at  your 

1  See  map  on  p.  93. 


?  * 


SEVEN  YEARS'   WAR   IN  AMERICA  81 

map,  you  will  see  that  behind  the  English  colonies,  and 
between  the  two  parts  of  the  French  possessions,  lay 
the  valley  of  the  Ohio  River,  and  it  was  over  this  valley 
that  the  fighting  began.  The  French  wanted  it  because 
they  were  anxious  to  join  their  two  colonies  into  one 
strong  country.  But  the  English  also  wanted  it,  because 
they  saw  that  if  they  once  allowed  the  French  to  take 
it  and  fortify  it,  they  themselves  would  soon  be  shut 
in  along  the  narrow  strip  of  land  between  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  and  the  sea.  They  were  quite  determined 
that  this  should  never  happen,  for  they  too  wanted 
room  for  their  colonies  to  grow  and  become  great. 

2.  Even  before  the  regular  war  broke  out,  fighting 
had  begun.  The  French  strengthened  their  position 
by  building  a  chain  of  forts  along  the  Ohio.  The  Eng- 
lish could  not  allow  this  move  to  go  unanswered,  so 
they  sent  an  army  under  General  Braddock  to  attack 
the  chief  of  these  forts,  but  Braddock  was  caught  in 
an  ambush  of  French  and  Indians,  and  he  was  killed, 
and  his  army  defeated.  This  was  the  state  of  things 
in  America  when  the  Seven  Years'  War  began  in  1756, 
and  new  troops  were  sent  out  from  England  and  France 
to  assist  the  colonists  in  the  struggle  for  the  first  place 
in  the  New  World. 

3.  The  French  were  fewer  in  number  than  the  Eng- 
lish, but  they  were  led  by  a  brave  and  clever  general 
called  Montcalm,  whom  the  English  for  a  long  time 
were  unable  to  defeat.  Chatham  saw  that  the  strength 
of  the  French  position  lay  in  the  fact  that  they  were 
in  possession  of  the  two  great  waterways  into  the  in- 
terior of  America — the  St.  Lawrence,  which  ran  into 
the  heart  of  the  country  from  the  east,  and  the  Mis- 


82     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

sissippi,  which  was  the  road  from  the  south.  Chatham 
realised  that  if  the  French  were  able  to  plant  them- 
selves firmly  along  both  these  rivers  it  would  be  almost 
impossible  to  dislodge  them.  So  he  planned  that  a 
naval  expedition  should  seize  Louisburg,  the  great 
French  fortress  commanding  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  that  an  army  should  push  boldly  west- 
wards, and  by  capturing  some  of  the  French  forts, 
separate  Canada  from  Louisiana,  and  so  hold  open 
the  gateway  to  the  West  to  the  British  colonists. 

4.  Chatham's  plan  was  successful.  In  1758  Bos- 
cawen  took  Louisburg,  and  in  the  same  year  the 
English  attacked  the  French  forts  in  the  Ohio  valley, 
and  although  Montcalm  gained  a  victory  at  Ticonde- 
roga,  one  after  another  the  forts  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  English.  The  fate  of  Canada  seemed  sealed, 
for  the  French  had  lost  control  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
their  colonies  were  cut  in  two,  and  as  the  British  navy 
was  supreme  by  sea,  they  could  not  obtain  help  from 
France.  But  Montcalm  was  a  brave  man  and  would 
not  allow  that  he  was  beaten,  so  he  took  up  a  very 
strong  position  at  Quebec  and  prepared  to  defend  him- 
self as  long  as  he  could.  Chatham  saw  that  if  Montcalm 
could  be  defeated,  and  Quebec  captured,  Canada  Would 
be  won,  and  he  looked  out  for  a  general  he  could  trust, 
and  the  man  he  chose  was  James  Wolfe. 

5.  Wolfe  was  only  thirty-two,  and  we  are  told  that 
he  was  a  "  remarkably  ugly  boy,  with  a  shock  of  red 
hair  and  a  turned-up  nose."  During  part  of  his  life,  too, 
he  was  in  very  bad  health.  No  one  who  saw  him  could 
believe  he  would  ever  make  a  general.  But  Wolfe  had 
a  great  heart  in  his  weakly  body.     He  was  as  brave  as 


SEVEN   YEARS'   WAR   IN   AMERICA  83 

a  lion,  and  once  lie  had  set  his  hand  to  a  task  would 
never  give  in  until  he  had  accomplished  it.  He  was 
a  keen  soldier,  and  joined  the  army  when  he  was  only 
fifteen.  By  the  time  he  was  twenty-one  he  had  fought 
in  seven  campaigns  and  was  already  a  colonel.     Wolfe 


General  Wolfe 

{From  the  painting  by  Schaak  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery") 

was  one  of  the  generals  at  the  taking  of  Louisburg,  and 
he  had  a  great  share  in  the  victory.  The  place  had  to 
be  attacked  in  boats,  but  the  French  opened  so  hot  a 
fire  that  it  did  not  seem  possible  to  get  near  it.  Then 
Wolfe  saw  that  there  was  a  part  of  the  beach  which 


84     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

their  guns  could  not  reach,  and  there  he  collected  his 
men,  with  the  result  that  the  last  attack  was  successful. 
When  he  went  back  to  England  soon  afterwards  he  was 
called  the  "  hero  of  Louisburg." 

6.  Chatham  saw  what  a  fine  fellow  Wolfe  was,  and 
though  he  was  quite  young  gave  him  command  of  the 
Canadian  expedition.  So  Wolfe  set  out  from  England 
in  the  spring  of  1759  with  fresh  troops  to  carry  out 
his  great  task  of  driving  the  French  out  of  Canada. 
When  he  arrived  he  found  that  Montcalm  had  16,000 
men,  and  had  placed  them  on  a  very  strong  position, 
on  part  of  the  great  rock  of  Quebec,  called  the  Heights 
of  Abraham.  Wolfe  had  only  9000,  but  he  was  not 
dismayed.  "  If  I  stay  here  till  November,"  he  said, 
"  I  will  take  it."  Montcalm  was  too  wise  to  move 
from  his  position,  and  Wolfe  was  not  strong  enough 
to  drive  him  from  it,  so  he  could  only  wait,  always 
hoping  to  find  some  way  of  getting  at  his  enemy.  But 
week  after  week  went  by,  and  still  he  seemed  no  nearer 
to  carrying  out  his  task.  At  last  he  fell  ill,  "  sick  at 
heart  and  ill  in  body,"  but,  weak  as  he  was,  rather  than 
give  in,  he  devised  a  daring  plan  for  taking  Quebec, 
just  as  it  seemed  quite  hopeless  to  do  so. 

7.  One  night  he  took  his  army  in  boats,  with  muffled 
oars,  up  the  river  to  a  place  where  a  tiny  steep  path 
winds  up  the  Heights  of  Abraham.  This  place  has 
been  called  Wolfe's  Cove  ever  since.  Twenty-five 
Highlanders  dashed  up  the  little  path  and  surprised 
the  French  soldiers  who  were  keeping  guard  on  the 
top,  and  then  the  rest  of  the  army  scrambled  up.  In 
the  morning,  the  French  saw  the  whole  British  army 
spread  out  in  front  of  them   in  battle  array.     Mont- 


THE   WAR   IN  INDIA  85 

calm's  strong  position  was  turned,  and  he  was  forced 
to  fight  on  level  terms.  The  French  were  the  first 
to  advance.  The  English  waited  till  they  had  come 
quite  close,  and  then  poured  a  tremendous  fire  on 
them.  The  French  line  was  broken,  the  English 
charged,  and  the  battle  was  won.  But  in  the  very 
moment  of  his  victory  Wolfe  was  hit  by  a  bullet  and 
fell,  mortally  wounded.  A  little  later  he  heard  a  cry : 
"  They  run  ] "  "  Who  run  ?  "  he  asked,  and  when  he 
was  told  it  was  the  French,  he  said,  "  God  be  praised  ! 
I  die  content,"  and  fell  back  dead.  This  battle  was 
decisive,  for  Wolfe's  brave  enemy  Montcalm  was  killed 
almost  at  the  same  moment.  It  was  truly  said,  "  The 
funeral  of  Montcalm  was  the  funeral  of  New  France," 
for  soon  afterwards  Quebec  was  taken,  and  in  a  short 
time  the  whole  of  Canada,  France's  strongest  colony, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  English.  This  brought  the 
war  in  America  to  a  close;  for  the  British  fla^  was 
raised  in  Canada,  where  it  has  flown  ever  since. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  WAR  IN  INDIA1 

1.  We  have  said  that  the  second  great  struggle  against 
France  spread  all  over  the  world,  so  that  we  find  Great 
Britain  and  France  fighting  with  each  other  in  far-off 
India,  just  as  in  Europe  and  America.  You  remember 
that  in  the  last  century  the  English  East  India  Com- 
pany  had   set  up  three   fortified  stations  in  India  at 

1  See  map  on  p.  178. 


86     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

Madras,  Calcutta,  and  Bombay,  and  after  the  Dutch 
had  been  defeated,  as  we  have  read,,  the  British  became 
the  greatest  traders  in  the  East.  But  in  1676  a  French 
East  India  Company  was  founded,  which  set  up  a  great 


Joseph  Dupleix 

station  at  Pondicherri,  not  far  from  Madras,  and  began 
to  trade  all  over  the  south  of  India.  When  the  second 
struggle  between  France  and  England  began,  the 
Governor  of  the  French  East  India  Company  was  a  very 
clever  and  ambitious  man  called  Dupleix,  who  was  not 
satisfied  with  trading  with  India,  but  wanted  to  found  a 
great  French  Empire  there  as  well.     At  that  time  the 


THE   WAR   IN  INDIA  87 

whole  country  was  in  a  fearful  state  of  confusion. 
The  different  princes  and  peoples  of  India  were  fighting 
with  one  another,  and  Dupleix  saw  what  a  splendid 
chance  this  was  for  carrying  out  his  plans.  So  he  took 
advantage  of  the  quarrels  of  the  Indian  princes  to 
spread  his  influence  among  them,  and  gradually  he 
came  to  be  one  of  the  most  powerful  men  in  the  south 
of  India. 

2.  But  Dupleix  soon  found  that  before  he  could  build 
a  strong  French  Empire  he  must  drive  the  English  out  of 
India  altogether,  and  in  1746  a  great  struggle  began  be- 
tween the  French  and  English  East  India  Companies.  To 
begin  with  neither  side  had  an  army,  because  up  to  that 
time  their  Indian  settlements  had  only  been  peaceful 
trading  stations,  so  Dupleix  enlisted  a  lot  of  natives 
and  put  them  under  European  officers,  and  these 
Sepoys,  as  they  were  called,  became  excellent  soldiers. 
The  English  did  the  same  thing,  and  to  this  day  most 
of  the  Indian  army  is  made  up  of  native  soldiers. 
Gradually  this  struggle  between  two  private  companies 
came  to  form  part  of  the  larger  war  between  France  and 
England.  When  the  fighting  first  began,  the  French 
had  the  best  of  it.  They  had  a  very  strong  fleet  in 
the  Indian  Ocean,  which  took  Madras  in  1746  ;  but 
when,  two  years  later,  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle 
stopped  for  a  few  years  the  war  between  France  and 
England,  they  had  to  hand  it  back  again.  The  East 
India  Companies,  however,  took  no  notice  of  the  treaty, 
and  went  on  fighting  one  another  for  the  first  place 
in  India. 

3.  At  that  time  there  was  a  young  Englishman  in 
Madras,  called  Robert  Clive.     He  had  been  a  wild  and 


88     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

lazy  boy,  and  his  family  had  sent  him  out  to  be  a  clerk 
with  the  East  India  Company,  thinking  that  "  he  would 
either  make  a  fortune  or  die  of  fever."  But  Clive  was 
active  and  ambitious,  and  longed  for  a  more  exciting 


Lord  Clive 

From  an  engraving  by  G.  Stodart  of  the  painting 
by  N.  Dana,  R.A. 


kind  of  life  than  sitting  in  an  office.  So  when  war 
broke  out,  he  offered  to  go  and  fight,  and  soon  showed 
that  instead  of  being  the  idle  good-for-nothing  his 
friends  had  thought  him,  he  was  a  splendid  soldier 
and  leader  of  men.     He  was  clear-sighted,  quick,  and 


THE   WAR  IN   INDIA  89 

fearless,  and  his  men  soon  learnt  to  love  and  trust  him. 
They  came  to  believe  that  "  whenever  he  led,  victory 
followed,  and  throughout  India  he  was  known  as 
'  Sabat  yang,  the  daring  in  war.'"  In  1751,  Clive  led 
an  army  of  Sepoys  against  Arcot,  a  town  belonging  to 
an  Indian  prince  who  was  a  friend  of  Dupleix.  As  he 
came  near  the  town,  a  tremendous  thunderstorm  came 
on,  and  the  garrison  were  so  astonished  to  see  that 
Clive  was  not  afraid,  that  they  did  not  even  wait  to 
fight,  but  ran  away  and  left  the  town  in  his  hands.  A 
little  later,  when  Clive  was  besieged  in  Arcot,  an  Indian 
prince,  hearing  what  a  brave  fight  he  was  making,  sent 
him  help  because,  as  he  said,  "  I  never  thought  till  now 
that  the  English  could  fight,  but,  as  they  can,  I  will 
help  them." 

4.  In  1754  the  two  Companies  agreed  to  stop  fighting, 
and,  Dupleix  being  called  back  to  France  soon  after, 
for  two  years  there  was  peace  in  India  between  them . 
But  no  sooner  was  a  truce  arranged  with  France  in 
the  south  of  India,  than  the  British  found  that  they  had 
to  fight  a  new  enemy  in  the  north.  The  whole  of  India, 
except  the  very  south,  was  at  this  time  supposed  to  be 
under  the  rule  of  the  Mogul  Emperors,  who  lived  at 
Delhi.  But  the  emperors  had  grown  weak  and  had 
very  little  power,  and  the  viziers  or  rulers  of  the 
provinces  into  which  the  land  was  divided,  had  really 
become  almost  independent  princes.  One  of  these 
viziers — Siraj-ud-Daulah — who  governed  the  province 
of  Bengal  in  the  north-east  of  India,  grew  jealous  of  the 
English  and  picked  a  quarrel  with  them.  In  1756,  he 
made  a  sudden  attack  and  took  their  station  at  Cal- 
cutta.   He  was  a  cruel  man,  and  allowed  his  soldiers  to 


90     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

shut  148  of  his  English  prisoners  in  a  tiny  room,  known 
as  the  "  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,"  and  leave  them  there 
without  a  drop  of  water  through  the  hot  summer  night. 
All  night  long  they  struggled  for  breath  and  screamed 
for  water  in  that  dreadful  cell.  But  nobody  came,  and 
the  cries  and  sobs  gradually  died  down.  When  the 
door  was  opened  in  the  morning,  only  twenty-five  were 
found  alive;  the  other  123  had  been  suffocated  or 
trampled  to  death. 

5.  No  sooner  did  this  dreadful  news  reach  Madras 
than  Clive  collected  all  the  men  he  could  find  and  set 
out  to  punish  Siraj-ud-Daulah.  His  tiny  army  of 
Englishmen  and  Sepoys  met  the  Indian  prince  with  his 
50,000  men  at  Plassey.  Some  of  dive's  officers  thought 
defeat  certain,  and  tried  to  persuade  him  not  to  fight. 
But  he  was  determined  to  avenge  the  Black  Hole  of 
Calcutta,  and  won  a  great  victory.  Siraj-ud-Daulah 
was  driven  out,  and  one  of  his  officers  who  had  helped 
the  English  was  put  in  his  place.  This  battle,  which 
was  fought  in  1757,  has  been  called  the  foundation 
of  the  British  Empire  in  India.  Up  to  this  time  the 
East  India  Company  had  only  traded  with  Indians,  and 
had  not  governed  any  part  of  the  country.  But  the 
attack  of  Siraj-ud-Daulah  forced  it  to  interfere  in 
Indian  affairs,  so  as  to  protect  its  officials  from  attack 
and  make  sure  that  white  people  could  live  safely  and 
in  peace.  Once  the  British  began  to  try  to  improve 
the  system  of  government  in  India,  they  could  not 
stop,  and  so  their  influence  spread  farther  and  farther, 
and  the  English  dominions  in  India  grew  and  grew, 
until  at  last  they  covered  the  whole  country.  But  we 
shall  learn  all  about  this  in  a  later  chapter. 


THE   WAR   IN   INDIA  91 

6.  While  this  war  with  the  Indians  had  been 
going  on  in  the  north,  the  Seven  Years'  War  had 
broken  out  in  Europe  and  America,  as  we  have  seen, 
and  the  struggle  between  French  and  English  for  con- 
trol of  the  south  of  India  had  commenced  once  more. 
At  first  the  French  gained  some  success.  In  1758 
they  attacked  Madras,  and  an  English  fleet  only  came 
up  just  in  time  to  save  it.  But  soon  the  sea-power  of 
England  began  to  tell,  for  she  was  able  to  send  out 
help  to  her  people  as  she  liked,  while  the  French  cried 
out  to  their  Government  in  vain.  Bit  by  bit  the  French 
were  driven  back.  In  1760  Sir  Eyre  Coote  defeated 
them  at  Wandiwash,  and  when  their  great  fortified 
station  at  Pondicherri  was  taken  soon  afterwards,  all 
their  hopes  of  creating  a  French  Empire  in  India 
disappeared.  So  Chatham's  wisdom  led  England  to 
victory  in  India  as  well  as  in  America.  In  both  these 
countries  the  fighting  was  over  by  1761,  because  British 
sea-power  prevented  the  French  from  sending  rein- 
forcements to  their  armies  when  they  were  in  sore  need 
of  them.  But  the  war  dragged  on  in  Europe  for  two 
years  longer.  At  last,  in  1763,  the  Peace  of  Paris  was 
signed,  and  the  second  great  struggle  between  England 
and  France  was  brought  to  an  end. 

7.  Now,  look  at  the  map  and  you  will  see  how, 
in  defending  herself  against  France,  England  had 
increased  the  British  Empire  all  over  the  world.  She 
had  conquered  Canada  from  France,  and  won  Florida 
from  Spain,  so  that  the  Union  Jack  flew  proudly  over 
all  the  east  of  North  America.  She  had  taken  four 
islands,  Tobago,  Grenada,  St.  Vincent,  and  Dominica, 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  Senegal    in  Africa,  besides 


92     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

winning:  back  Minorca  in  the  Mediterranean.  In  India 
she  had  broken  the  power  of  France  for  ever,  and  laid 
the  foundation  of  a  mighty  Empire  of  her  own.  Above 
all,  she  had  proved  more  clearly  than  ever  that  she  was 
Mistress  of  the  Sea.  Chatham's  plan  had  been  suc- 
cessful, and,  by  helping  the  enemies  of  France  in  the 
Old  World,  England  had  won  an  Empire  in  the 
New. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

THE    AMERICAN    REVOLT1 

1.  We  have  come  now  to  a  very  sad  period  in  the 
history  of  the  Empire,  for,  instead  of  the  glories  and 
triumphs  of  the  last  war,  we  have  to  learn  how  England 
lost  all  her  colonies  in  America,  except  Canada  and 
Newfoundland.  In  those  days  it  was  not  possible  for 
England  and  her  colonies  to  be  as  closely  united  as 
they  are  nowadays.  To  begin  with,  they  knew  very 
little  about  each  other,  for  there  were  no  telegraphs 
or  steamers,  scarcely  any  newspapers,  and  letters  often 
took  twice  as  long  to  cross  the  Atlantic  then  as  they 
do  on  the  whole  long  journey  from  London  to  New 
Zealand  now.  Besides,  the  only  way  of  travelling 
backwards  and  forwards  across  the  wide  ocean  was 
in  tiny  sailing  ships,  which  were  very  uncomfortable, 
and  which  were  often  swallowed  up  in  the  waves; 
therefore  only  adventurous  people  would  sail  in  them, 
and  there  was  no  constant  stream  of  people  journeying 

1  See  map  on  p.  71. 


America  after  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  1763 


1       1  English. 

ES23  Frencn 

■f?77771  Spanish 

English-  Islands  underlined 


CE.ORGE  PHILIP*  SON    LT 
Longmans,    Green-  &.  Co..  London-.  l\'ew~Ybrlz ,  Bombay  &  Calcutta- 


94     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

to  America  and  Canada  and  back  as  there  is  to-day, 
bringing  news  from  one  part  of  the  Empire  to  another. 

2.  So  it  was  that  people  in  Great  Britain  under- 
stood very  little  about  New  England,  and  most  of  the 
New  England  settlers  had  been  so  long  in  America  that 
they  had  almost  forgotten  what  the  British  Isles  were 
like.  These  settlers,  too,  were  strong  men,  and  had 
learnt  to  trust  to  themselves,  for  they  had  to  make 
a  living  in  a  new  country  where  life  was  rough  and 
hard,  and  their  battles  with  the  French  and  the 
Indians,  and  their  quarrels  among  themselves,  had 
made  them  very  independent.  As  long  as  Canada 
belonged  to  France  they  needed  the  help  of  the  British 
fleet  and  British  soldiers  to  protect  them  from  the 
Erench.  But  once  their  old  enemy  had  been  driven 
out,  they  no  longer  felt  the  need  of  England's  help, 
and  so  they  began  to  think  more  and  more  of  their 
grievances  against  their  Mother-country. 

3.  In  those  days  the  idea  that  the  real  colonies — 
that  is,  settlements  of  white  men  and  women — might 
come  to  be  partners  in  a  big  Empire  was  very  un- 
common. People  still  believed  that  when  a  country 
founded  colonies,  they  were  her  very  own  to  do  what 
she  liked  with.  The  American  colonies  were  then  most 
valuable  because  of  their  trade,  so  all  sorts  of  laws 
were  passed  for  them,  compelling  them  only  to  trade 
with  their  Mother-country,  though,  in  return,  they 
had  certain  advantages  over  foreigners  in  trading  with 
England.  These  laws  did  not  really  harm  the  American 
settlers,  for  in  any  case  almost  all  their  trade  would 
have  been  with  the  British  Isles,  but  they  were  trouble- 
some, and  the  colonists  grew  more  and  more  annoyed 


THE   AMERICAN   REVOLT 


95 


with  them.  Unfortunately  for  the  Empire,  the  wise 
Chatham  had  ceased  to  be  Prime  Minister  just  before 
the  Treaty  of  Paris,  and  King  George  III.'s  new 
ministers  were  short-sighted  men  who  did  not  stop 
to  think  of  the  feelings  of  the  New  Englanders,  and 
were  hasty  and  tactless,  and  so  before  long  a  quarrel 
broke  out.  As  we  shall  see,  it  was  not  so  much  what 
King  George's  ministers  wanted 
to  do,  as  the  way  in  which  they 
did  it,  that  brought  about  the  war. 
4.  Great  Britain  had  spent  a 
great  deal  of  money  in  defending 
the  New  Englanders  from  the 
French  in  the  last  war,  and  her 
ministers  said  it  was  only  fair  that 
the  colonies  should  contribute 
their  share.     So  they  wanted  to 

tax  them  in  order  to  pay  for  a  °NE  0F  THE  Stamps  as 
small  army  in  America.  But 
though  the  taxes  were  very  light 
the  colonies  would  not  pay  them, 
for  they  said  that  as  they  sent 
no  members  to  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, it  had  no  right  to  tax  them  without  their  own 
consent.  The  quarrel  went  on  for  some  time,  and  the 
English  ministers  kept  changing  their  minds.  Some 
of  them  wanted  to  force  the  colonies  to  obey,  and 
others  said  that  it  was  the  colonies  who  were  in  the 
right,  and  that  Great  Britain  could  not  lay  taxes  on 
them.  In  the  end  all  the  taxes  were  taken  off  except 
one  on  tea;  but  by  this  time  the  Americans  were 
so   angry  that,  when   three  ships   came   into    Boston 


appointed  to  be 
used  under  george 
Grenville's  Stamp 
Act  of  1765  for  the 
purpose  of  raising 
Taxes  in  America 


96     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

Harbour  laden  with  tea,  they  would  not  allow  it  to 
be  landed,  and  a  lot  of  them,  dressed  up  as  Indians, 
rushed  on  board  and  emptied  it  all  into  the  water. 
When  the  news  of  this  Boston  Tea-party,  as  they  called 
it,  reached  England,  the  Government  thought  it  was 
time  to  punish  the  rebels,  and  passed  some  very  severe 
Acts.  But  the  Americans  called  them  the  Intolerable 
Acts,  and  refused  to  obey  them.  There  was  no  longer 
any  hope  of  keeping  the  peace,  and  in  1775  war 
broke  out. 

5.  The  American  War  can  be  divided  into  two 
periods.  In  the  first  period  it  was  a  civil  war  inside 
the  Empire,  between  the  Mother-country  and  some 
of  her  colonies,  and  all  the  fighting  took  place  in 
America.  In  the  second  period,  it  grew  into  a  world- 
wide struggle  with  France,  Spain,  and  Holland,  and 
most  of  the  fighting  took  place  at  sea.  In  fact  it 
became  the  third  of  the  great  struggles  between  France 
and  England  for  the  first  place  in  the  world.  In  this 
chapter  we  will  only  trace  the  history  of  the  first 
period. 

6.  The  rebellion  began  in  Massachusetts  and  the 
New  England  colonies  in  the  north,  but  it  soon  spread 
to  Virginia  and  the  Southern  colonies,  and  in  1774  a 
great  congress  of  representatives  from  all  parts  met 
at  Philadelphia  to  settle  on  a  plan  of  action.  The 
rebels  tried  hard  to  persuade  the  French  in  Canada 
to  join  them,  but  without  success,  for  the  Canadians 
had  been  very  well  treated  by  the  British  Government 
since  1763,  and  had  been  allowed  to  keep  their  religion 
and  their  language,  which  they  loved  dearly.  They 
still  hated  their  old  enemies,  the  New  Englanders,  and 


THE   AMERICAN   REVOLT 


97 


feared  that,  if  they  helped  them  to  defeat  the  British, 
they  would  turn  round  on  the  Canadians  and  rob  them 
of  their  religion  and  their  language.  When  the  attempt 
at  persuasion  failed,  the  rebels  tried  to  use  force,  and 
sent  an  army  into  Canada  which  took  Montreal  and 
laid  siege  to  Quebec.  But  in  the  end  it  was  defeated, 
and,  after  1776, 
Canada  was  left 
in  peace. 

7.  When  the 
war  broke  out 
the  colonists  had 
no  real  army  to 
fight  the  Ensr- 
lish ;  but  a  great 
leader  rose  up, 
called  George 
Washington,who 
collected  all  the 
men  who  were 
eager  to  fight, 
and  drilled  them 
into  an  army 
which  soon 
showed  it  could 
face  the  trained 
soldiers  that  were  sent  out  from  England.  Fighting 
began  in  1775.  In  the  next  year  representatives  of 
the  thirteen  rebel  colonies  met  together  and  signed 
a  Declaration  of  Independence,  which  said  that  they 
were  free  and  would  no  longer  be  subject  to  the  crown 
of  Great  Britain.     From  this  time  the  inhabitants  of 

G 


George  Washington 


98     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

the  New  England  colonies  have  been  called  Americans. 
Several  battles  were  fought,  and  at  first  the  Americans 
were  defeated,  but  Washington  would  not  give  in ;  and 
the  English  general  was  so  slow  and  lazy  that  he  always 
let  the  enemy  escape  just  when  he  had  them  in  his 
grasp.  At  last  the  British  planned  a  great  campaign 
to  divide  the  colonies  of  the  South  from  the  colonies 
of  the  North,  so  as  to  be  able  to  beat  them  each  in 
turn.  But  the  plan  failed,  for  one  of  the  English 
generals,  Sir  John  Burgoyne,  when  trying  to  carry  it 
out,  was  caught  by  the  Americans  in  the  marshes  of 
Saratoga  in  1777,  and  had  to  surrender  with  all  his 
army.     This  ended  the  first  period  of  the  war, 


CHAPTER   XIX 

THE   THIRD   STRUGGLE   AGAINST   FRANCE1 

1.  The  second  period  of  the  American  War  forms  part 
of  the  third  great  struggle  between  France  and  England. 
The  French  had  never  forgiven  the  British  for  defeating 
them  in  Canada  and  India,  and  were  longing  for  re- 
venge ;  so  when  they  saw  that  the  Americans  really 
meant  to  fight  their  Mother-country  and  had  won  some 
victories,  they  sided  with  them  and  declared  war  on 
England.  Spain  also  joined,  for  she  could  not  rest  till 
she  had  won  back  Gibraltar.  The  American  War  now 
grew  into  a  great  sea-war,  and  England  found  that 
she  had  to  defend  her  Empire  all  the  world  over  against 

1  See  map  on  p.   71   for  American   War ;    see  map  on  p.  20  for 
European  War  ;  see  map  on  p.  178  for  Indian  War. 


THE  THIRD   STRUGGLE   AGAINST    FRANCE     99 

the  French  and  Spanish  fleets.  Both  her  enemies  saw- 
that  if  they  could  destroy  her  sea-power  the  huge 
Empire  would  fall  to  pieces,  and  they  would  be  able 
to  divide  it  between  them.  So  while  they  helped 
Washington  on  land,  they  also  did  their  best  to  defeat 
the  British  Navy  on  the  sea. 

2.  But  not  only  had  England  to  fight  France,  Spain, 
and  the  Americans.  She  was  unpopular  with  the  other 
powers  of  Europe  as  well.  Her  victories  in  the  last 
war  had  made  them  jealous  of  her  power,  and  now  she 
made  them  angry  by  claiming  the  right  to  search  the 
ships  of  every  country  on  the  seas,  so  as  to  stop 
them  from  trading  with  her  enemies.  Russia,  Prussia, 
Sweden,  and  Denmark  said  that  England  had  no  right 
to  do  this,  and  they  formed  what  was  called  the  Armed 
Neutrality  of  the  North,  which  meant  that  they  were 
ready  to  declare  war  against  her  at  any  time.  Holland 
actually  joined  in  the  war  in  1780,  and  added  her  fleet 
to  the  fleets  of  France  and  Spain.  England,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  no  friends  to  help  her,  and  was  clearly 
in  grave  peril.  It  was  at  this  time  of  danger,  too,  that  she 
lost  her  greatest  minister.  Chatham  was  ill  and  dying ; 
but,  even  so,  he  insisted  on  being  carried  to  the  House 
of  Lords  for  the  last  time  to  urge  his  country  to  fight 
on  to  the  end.  "  Seventeen  years  ago,"  he  began,  "  this 
people  was  the  terror  of  the  world — "  He  could  say 
no  more,  but  fell  back,  and  was  taken  home  to  die. 
Happily  the  navy  was  strong  and  well  equipped,  and  a 
great  sailor,  Rodney — "  the  greatest  of  English  seamen 
save  Blake  and  Nelson  " — was  at  the  head  of  it. 

3.  First  of  all  let  us  see  what  happened  in  the  New 
World.     Owing  to  the  number  of  her  enemies  in  Europe 


THE  THIRD   STRUGGLE   AGAlN^   FRA^Cfi    161 

England  could  not  send  her  generals  in  America  all  the 
help  they  wanted.  She  had  first  of  all  to  defend  her- 
self at  home.  So  her  armies  in  America  dwindled  away 
through  war  and  sickness,  and  Washington  and  the 
French  gradually  drove  them  back  to  the  coast,  until 
the  British  general,  Cornwallis,  found  himself  shut  up 
at  Yorktown,  with  Washington  in  front  of  him  and  the 
French  fleet  in  the  bay  behind.  At  last,  in  October 
1781,  hunger  and  sickness  forced  him  to  surrender  with 
all  his  army.  Five  days  later  the  British  fleet  came  up 
with  help,  but  it  was  too  late.  The  war  in  America  was 
at  an  end,  and  the  Americans  had  won  their  independ- 
ence. England  had  lost  her  first  colonies  because  her 
enemies  had  grown  strong  enough  to  interfere  with  her 
command  of  the  seas,  and  while  she  was  fighting  for 
sea-power,  the  Americans  had  won  the  day.  But  this 
made  her  all  the  more  determined  to  defeat  France  and 
Spain,  and  to  show  the  rest  of  the  world  that  she  was 
still  the  Mistress  of  the  Sea. 

4.  In  this  later  struggle  there  were  three  great 
battlefields — one  off  the  coast  of  Europe,  one  in  India 
and  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  one  in  the  West  Indian 
seas.  At  first  it  looked  as  if  the  weight  of  this  war  all 
over  the  world  was  too  great  to  bear.  For  while  her 
colonies  were  breaking  from  her  in  America,  England 
lost  Minorca  in  Europe,  and  France  took  one  after 
another  of  her  islands  in  the  West  Indies.  But  in 
1780  Rodney  destroyed  the  Spanish  fleet  in  a  great 
battle  off'  Cape  St.  Vincent ;  and  for  four  long  years 
General  Elliott  held  Gibraltar  against  the  combined 
forces  of  France  and  Spain.  It  was  chiefly  for  the  sake 
of  winning  back  Gibraltar  that  Spain  had  joined  the 


102     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

war,  and  so,  towards  the  end  of  the  four  years'  siege,  in 
1782,  she  determined  to  make  a  final  effort  to  take  it. 
The  last  battle  was  a  terrific  artillery  duel.  For  four 
days  and  nights  400  guns  from  the  fleets  of  France  and 
Spain  bombarded  the  rock,  and  nearly  as  many  cannon 
replied.  At  length  the  British  gunners  took  to  using 
red-hot  shot.  This  plan  was  successful,  for  soon  after- 
wards some  of  the  enemies'  ships  began  to  catch  fire, 
and  one  by  one  they  blew  up,  until  the  fleets  had  to 
retire.  Gibraltar  was  saved,  for  a  day  or  two  later  Lord 
Howe  came  up  with  his  ships  and  relieved  the  garrison. 
It  was  owing  to  this  victory  that  the  great  natural  fort 
which  guards  the  entry  to  the  Mediterranean  is  still  a 
part  of  the  Empire. 

5.  The  second  great  battlefield  between  the  French 
and  the  English  was  in  India.  Ever  since  the  East  India 
Company  had  begun  to  take  a  share  in  the  government 
of  India,  after  Surajah  Dowlah's  attack  on  Calcutta, 
it  had  had  trouble  with  the  Indian  princes ;  and 
although  the  French  no  longer  had  any  power  in  India, 
they  were  always  ready  to  stir  up  the  Indians  against 
the  English  and  to  send  armies  and  fleets  to  help 
them.  At  this  time  the  Governor  of  India  was  Warren 
Hastings,  a  wise,  energetic  man,  who  at  once  took  steps 
to  foil  their  plans.  The  trouble  began  near  Bombay 
with  a  fierce  people  called  the  Mahrattas,  who  were  the 
terror  of  all  the  centre  of  India.  Hastings  sent  an 
army  across  the  middle  of  India,  from  Calcutta  to 
Bombay,  a  thing  no  one  thought  was  possible,  and 
the  Mahrattas  were  defeated.  Then  he  turned  his 
attention  to  the  south,  where  the  French  had  en- 
couraged Haider  Ali,  the  Sultan  of  Mysore,  to  attack  the 


THE   THIRD   STRUGGLE   AGAINST   FRANCE     103 


English.  Once  again  Hastings  sent  help,  and  Haider 
AH  was  defeated  by  Sir  Eyre  Coote  (who,  you  re- 
member, won  the  battle  of  Wandewash  in  the  last  war). 
The  French  also 
sent  out  a  fleet 
filled  with  sol- 
diers to  land  in 
India,  and  Ad- 
miral Hughes 
had  to  fight  five 
desperate  battles 
before  he  could 
drive  them  away. 
The  chief  result 
of  this  unsuc- 
cessful French 
attack  on  India 
was  to  increase 
the  power  of  the 
East  India  Com- 
pany, for  the  war 
had  forced  them 
to  conquer  and  to 
rule  over  a  large 
part  of  India. 

6.  The  third 
battlefield  be- 
tween the  French 

and  the  British  was  in  the  West  Indies.  At  first  the 
French  took  several  of  the  islands  belonging  to  Great 
Britain.  But  before  the  end  of  the  war  England  won  all 
their  possessions  back  by  the  great  battle  of  the  Saints, 


Warren  Hastings 

(From  an  engraving  by  C.  J.  Tomkins.) 


104     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

in  1782.  This  was  Rodney's  most  famous  victory,  and 
indeed  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  victories  that  has  ever 
been  won  by  the  British  fleet.  For,  in  the  first  place, 
Rodney  defeated  the  French  by  a  new  plan,  which 
was  often  used  by  the  sailors  who  came  after  him — 
by  "  breaking  the  enemy's  line,"  he  turned  all  their  ships 
into  confusion.  Secondly,  the  French  fleet  was  entirely 
destroyed  or  captured.  Among  the  six  ships  which  were 
taken  was  the  admiral's  ship,  The  Ville  de  Paris,  the 
proudest  and  most  gallant  ship  afloat,  which,  one  of  the 
French  officers  had  boasted,  not  the  whole  British  fleet 
could  capture.  Thirdly,  this  great  victory  destroyed 
the  last  of  England's  rivals  on  the  sea,  and  from  this 
time  the  supremacy  of  her  fleet  was  unchallenged. 

7.  We  may  well  remember  Rodney  among  the  rest 
of  the  Empire's  heroes.  It  was  said  that  "  more  liners 
had  struck  their  flags  to  him  than  to  any  British 
admiral  of  his  generation " ;  and  he  himself  wrote 
after  the  battle  of  the  Saints :  "  Within  two  little  years 
I  have  taken  two  Spanish,  one  French,  and  one  Dutch 
admiral." 


CHAPTER   XX 

THE   END   OF   THE   THIRD  STRUGGLE  AGAINST 
FRANCE  x 

1.  By  this  time  all  Europe  was  tired  of  the  war. 
The  English  colonists  in  America  had  won  their  free- 
dom, and  France  and  Spain  saw  that  they  could  not 
break  England's  power  on  the  sea,  so  every  one  was 

1  See  map  facing  p.  128. 


END   OF   THE  THIRD   STRUGGLE  105 

glad  to  make  peace,  and  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  was 
signed  in  1783.  Great  Britain  agreed  to  the  independ- 
ence of  the  American  colonies,  which  have  ever  since 
been  called  the  United  States;  she  gave  up  Florida 
and  Minorca  to  Spain ;  and  the  West  Indian  Islands 
of  Tobago  and  Santa  Lucia  to  France.  On  the  other 
hand  she  kept  Nagapatnam,  a  town  she  had  taken  from 
the  Dutch  in  India ;  and  she  recovered  Dominica,  St. 
Vincent,  St.  Kitts,  and  some  other  islands  in  the  West 
Indies,  which  France  had  seized  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war. 

2.  The  loss  of  the  American  colonies  was  a  sad  blow 
to  England.  It  is  hard  to  say  whether  they  would 
have  remained  part  of  the  Empire  even  if  there  had 
been  no  war.  In  those  days  when  travel  was  so  slow, 
when  there  were  no  telegraphs,  railways,  steamers,  or 
newspapers,  it  was  difficult  for  the  different  parts  of  the 
Empire  to  know  much  about  one  another,  and  they 
had  very  few  interests  in  common.  In  consequence,  as 
we  have  seen,  difficulties  and  misunderstandings  arose. 
The  chief  tie  which  had  bound  England  and  her 
American  colonies  together  had  been  the  fear  of  a 
foreign  enemy.  Once  the  power  of  France  in  Canada 
was  broken,  this  common  interest  disappeared,  and 
when  the  first  quarrel  arose,  the  colonies  rebelled  and 
became  a  separate  country. 

3.  But  the  rise  of  America  had  one  good  effect,  it 
made  Canada  a  strong  and  loyal  part  of  the  Empire. 
When  the  rebellion  broke  out,  there  were  about  three 
million  people  in  the  American  colonies.  They  did  not 
all  approve  of  the  revolt,  and  about  one  million  of 
them  chose  to  be  faithful  to  the  King  and  the  Empire, 


106     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

and  refused  to  fight  against  the  Mother-country. 
They  called  themselves  the  United  Empire  loyalists, 
and  they  had  to  suffer  many  cruel  hardships  during 
the  war.  When  it  was  over  many  of  them  were  forced 
to  cross  over  the  border  into  Canada,  where  they  were 
given  land  and  money  by  the  British  Government. 
These  were  the  first  British  colonists  in  Canada.  They 
settled  in  two  groups,  one  on  each  side  of  the  Province 
of  Quebec,  where  most  of  the  French  lived.  The  one 
group  went  to  live  along  Lake  Ontario,  high  up  on  the 
St.  Lawrence  near  the  Niagara  Falls ;  the  other  settled 
near  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  on  the  south  bank, 
where  they  founded  the  two  colonies  of  Nova  Scotia 
and  New  Brunswick.  At  first  these  colonists  had  many 
troubles,  but  they  set  to  work  bravely  to  make  new 
homes,  and  finally  prospered.  They  were  proud  of  the 
name  they  had  won,  and  their  descendants,  who  are  still 
some  of  the  strongest  and  most  enterprising  people  in 
Canada,  have  always  held  fast  to  the  idea  of  an  United 
Empire. 

4.  So  that  the  effect  of  the  American  War  of  Inde- 
pendence on  Canada  was  twofold.  In  the  first  place 
it  led  to  the  settlement  of  a  large  number  of  British  in 
Canada,  which  had  previously  only  been  inhabited  by 
the  French.  In  the  second  place  it  created  a  strong 
bond  of  common  interest  between  French  and  British 
in  Canada  and  the  people  of  the  British  Isles,  for  both 
were  anxious  to  protect  the  frontiers  of  Canada  from 
invasion  by  the  Americans  to  the  south.  As  we  shall 
see  later  it  was  not  very  long  (1812)  before  such  an 
invasion  was  made. 

5.  The  American  War  of  Independence  had  another 


END   OF   THE   THIRD   STRUGGLE  107 

strange  result.  You  remember  that  Dam  pier  visited 
Australia  in  1700.  From  that  time  for  nearly  seventy 
years  nobody  seems  to  have  thought  any  more  about 
it.  It  is  not  very  surprising,  for  a  great  part  of  the 
shore  of  Australia  nearest  to  Europe  is  rocky  and 
stony,  and  you  have  to  go  some  way  inland  before 
you  come  to  water  and  rich  soils.  Besides,  as  there 
were  very  few  natives  in  Australia,  few  signs  of  cul- 
tivation were  to  be  seen,  and  so  it  looked  at  first  as 
if  the  whole  country  was  a  desert.  About  1768,  how- 
ever, Captain  Cook  made  several  voyages  to  explore 
those  southern  seas,  as  people  had  long  had  an  idea 
that  there  was  a  great  continent  in  that  part  of  the 
world  which  reached  all  the  way  to  the  South  Pole. 
Captain  Cook  soon  learnt  that  there  was  no  continent 
stretching  to  the  South  Pole,  but  he  found  that  New 
Zealand  was  made  up  of  two  islands,  and  discovered 
a  great  many  other  islands  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  He 
also  explored  the  coast  of  New  South  Wales  in  Aus- 
tralia, and  brought  home  the  news  that  it  was  a  rich 
country  and  good  for  settlement. 

6.  Just  at  the  time  that  Captain  Cook  came  back 
with  his  stories  of  Australia,  the  British  Government 
were  in  a  strange  difficulty.  For  a  long  time  they  had 
been  getting  rid  of  convicts,  prisoners,  and  unruly 
characters  by  transporting  them  to  the  American 
colonies  to  work  for  the  Government  there.  These 
convicts  were  not  all  wicked  men,  as  you  might  sup- 
pose. In  those  days  people  were  put  in  prison  for 
much  smaller  reasons  than  they  are  now,  and  a  great 
many  of  the  convicts  were  merely  poachers  and  men 
and  women  who  were  noisy  and  riotous.      When  the 


108     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 


Captain  Cook 


END  OF   THE   THIRD   STRUGGLE  109 

American  colonies  broke  away  from  the  Empire,  it  was 
no  longer  possible  to  send  the  convicts  there,  and  the 
British  Government  had  to  find  some  place  to  send 
them.  The  need  was  specially  urgent  because  the 
close  of  the  war  had  brought  back  to  England  all  sorts 
of  wild  and  adventurous  spirits  who  were  constantly 
getting  into  trouble.  At  last  somebody  suggested  that 
a  colony  should  be  formed  in  Australia  to  which  all 
these  people  should  be  sent.  The  idea  was  carried 
out,  and  this  is  how  England  came  to  take  what  was 
afterwards  to  grow  into  one  of  the  most  important 
parts  of  the  Empire.  She  was  only  just  in  time,  for 
hardly  had  her  first  ship  touched  the  shore  than  two 
French  men-of-war  appeared  in  the  distance.  They, 
too,  had  thought  of  taking  possession  of  Australia, 
but  they  were  just  too  late.  That  is  how  the  British 
Empire  is  said  to  have  gained  Australia  by  six  days. 

7.  So,  though  during  the  third  great  struggle 
against  France,  England  had  lost  America,  even  that 
loss  had  brought  her  some  advantages.  For  she 
gained  a  strong  and  vigorous  people  in  Canada  which 
was  devoted  to  the  Empire;  she  planted  her  flag  in 
what  was  to  grow  into  the  great  country  of  Australia ; 
she  became  the  supreme  power  in  India;  and  she 
showed  the  world  once  more  that  she  was  Mistress  of 
the  Sea,  and  would  tolerate  no  interference  with  her 
independence. 


110     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 
CHAPTER  XXI 

THE   FINAL   STRUGGLE  AGAINST  FRANCE  * 

1.  We  come  now  to  the  last  chapter  in  the  story  of 
the  long  struggle  of  England  against  the  threatening 
power  of  France.  This  was  their  fourth  contest,  and 
it  is  divided  into  two  separate  wars,  which  together 
lasted  for  twenty  years,  with  one  year  of  peace  in 
between.  The  first  was  the  war  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, from  1793  to  1802 ;  the  second  was  the  War  of 
Napoleon,  from  1803  to  1815. 

2.  The  war  came  about  in  the  following  way.  In 
1789  a  great  revolution  broke  out  in  France.  The 
people  had  many  grievances  against  the  French  king 
and  his  ministers,  and  finally  they  rose  up  and 
overturned  the  Government.  Once  they  had  begun 
they  grew  more  and  more  violent,  until  in  the  end 
the  whole  country  was  drowned  in  blood.  They 
deposed  their  king  and  cut  off  his  head,  and  set 
up  a  new  government  for  themselves,  so  cruel  and 
bloodthirsty  that  it  came  to  be  known  as  the  Reign  of 
Terror.  The  whole  of  Europe  was  alarmed  at  these 
proceedings,  and  it  was  not  very  long  before  war  broke) 
out,  first  of  all  with  Austria,  and  later  with  Holland 
and  England.  And  so  in  1793  began  the  final  and 
the  greatest  of  all  the  struggles  between  France  and 
England. 

3.  Fortunately  for  England,  she  had  a  strong  man 

1  See  map  on  p,  20. 


THE  FINAL  STRUGGLE  AGAINST   FRANCE     111 

for  her  Prime  Minister,  and  this  was  William  Pitt,  son 
of  the  great  Lord  Chatham.  Pitt  was  quite  a  young- 
man,  and  had  become  Prime  Minister  in  1783  when  he 
was  only  twenty-five.  For  ten  years  he  worked  to  help 
on  England's  trade  and  to  make  her  rich  and  strong. 


William  Pitt  the  Younger 

When  the  Revolution  started  he  tried  hard  to  keep 
the  peace,  but  the  French  were  too  dangerous,  and  in 
order  to  preserve  the  safety  of  the  Empire,  Pitt  joined 
Avith  other  countries  of  Europe  who  were  at  war  with 
France.  The  first  important  battle  was  fought  in 
1794,  the  year  following   the   outbreak  of  war,  when 


112     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

the  English  defeated  the  Frenchjust  outside  the  Channel, 
in  a  sea-fight  called  the  "  Glorious  First  of  June."  This 
battle  established  the  supremacy  of  the  British  fleet. 
So  the  French  had  to  look  around  for  fresh  ships. 
They  therefore  seized  Holland  with  its  fleet  and  its 
colonies,  and  they  also  forced  Spain  to  join  with  them 
so  that  they  could  use  her  vessels  of  war  as  well.  Then 
they  made  a  plan  to  conquer  the  British  Isles.  The 
French  and  Spanish  fleets  were  to  attack  England, 
while  the  Dutch  fleet  was  to  land  an  army  in  Ireland. 
But  Pitt  and  the  British  navy  were  too  strong  for  them, 
and  won  two  great  victories.  First  the  Spanish  fleet 
was  utterly  defeated  off  Cape  St.  Vincent  on  the  coast 
of  Portugal,  and  then  the  Dutch  were  beaten  at 
Camperdown.  Both  these  battles  were  fought  in 
1797. 

4.  It  was  in  the  battle  of  Cape  St.  Vincent  that 
Nelson  first  made  himself  famous,  for  although  he  was 
only  one  of  the  younger  captains  it  was  he  who  really 
won  the  victory.  While  the  battle  was  raging,  he 
dashed  with  his  little  ship  amongst  the  enemy.  Five 
of  the  Spanish  ships  poured  their  fire  upon  him,  but 
nothing  daunted,  he  boarded  one  of  their  great  vessels 
and  forced  her  to  surrender,  and  when  the  Spanish 
admiral's  ship  came  up  to  help,  he  forced  that  to 
surrender  too.  So  many  Spanish  officers  came  to  hand 
over  their  swords  that  he  could  not  take  them  all, 
but  had  to  give  them  to  one  of  his  men,  who  tucked 
them  all  under  his  arm.  After  this  great  defeat  the 
French  had  to  give  up  their  plan  of  invading  England, 
and  the  British  fleet,  which  was  supreme  by  sea,  was 
busily    engaged   in  other   parts  of  the   world  seizing 


»•••••     • 


«    ,•  -•« 


THE   FINAL   STRUGGLE  AGAINST   FRANCE     113 

Spanish  and  Dutch  colonies,  so  as  to  prevent  them 
from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  In  this 
way  Cape  Colony,  Ceylon,  Amboyna,  and  some  of  the 
West  Indian  Islands,  fell  into  British  hands. 


Lord  Nelson 

{From  the  picture  by  Abbot  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery) 


5.  While  these  battles  were  being  fought  by  sea 
the  French  had  been  continuously  fighting  on  land 
as  well,  and  Napoleon  Bonaparte  had  come  to  the 
front  as  their  greatest  general.     He  had  won  a  great 

H 


114     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

many  victories  over  the  peoples  of  Europe,  and  now 
he  made  a  plan  to  build  up  a  great  French  Empire  in 
the  East.  First  of  all  he  tried  to  drive  the  English  out 
of  India;  so  he  stirred  up  the  natives  to  rebel,  and 
sent  help  to  Tippoo,  the  son  of  Haider  Ali,  who  was 
fighting  against  the  English  in  Mysore.  Then  he  led 
an  army  into  Egypt  and  conquered  it.  But  just  as  he 
was  setting  up  a  French  State  there,  his  plans  were 
spoilt  by  Nelson,  who  followed  him,  and  caught  his  fleet 
and  destroyed  it  near  the  mouth  of  the  Nile.  "  The 
battle  of  the  Nile,"  said  Nelson,  "was  not  a  victory, 
but  a  conquest."  For  without  a  fleet  to  protect  him 
from  attack  behind  and  to  bring  him  supplies  and 
reinforcements  from  France,  Napoleon  was  powerless. 
At  the  same  time  Tippoo  was  defeated,  and  the  power 
of  the  British  in  India  became  stronger  than  ever.  So 
Napoleon  had  to  go  back  to  France,  and  from  that 
time  he  hated  England  fiercely,  and  determined  to 
devote  all  his  energies  to  destroying  her. 

6.  Unfortunately  for  England,  Napoleon's  armies 
were  all-powerful,  and  nobody  could  resist  him 
on  land.  So  one  by  one  he  forced  the  nations  of 
Europe  to  submit  to  his  will,  and  to  join  in  league 
against  England,  until  at  last  she  stood  alone 
against  the  world.  But  once  more  her  command  of 
the  sea  enabled  her  to  keep  her  freedom.  In  1801 
Sir  Ralph  Abercromby  drove  the  last  of  the  French 
army  out  of  Egypt,  and  the  Danish  fleet  was  destroyed 
at  Copenhagen.  Again  it  was  Nelson  who  won  the 
victory,  although  he  was  not  in  command  of  the  fleet. 
In  the  middle  of  the  battle  one  of  the  officers  told  him 
that  the  admiral  had  put  up  the  signal  to  stop  firing. 


THE   FINAL   STRUGGLE   AGAINST   FRANCE     115 


Nelson  knew  that  if  the  fight  went  on  a  little  longer 
he  might  still  win.  "I  have  only  one  eye,"  he  said; 
"  I  have  a  right  to  be  blind  sometimes ; "  and  then  he 
put  his  glass  to  his  blind  eye  and  said,  "  I  really  do  not 
see  the  signal,"  so  he  went  on  with  the  battle  and  won 
it.  Afterwards  he  wrote :  "  I  have  been  in  one  hundred 
and  five  engagements,  but  that  of  to-day  is  the  most 
terrible  of  them  all." 

7.  After  this  reverse  Napoleon  was  anxious  for  time 
in  which  to  reorganise  his  armies, 
and  collect  a  navy.  For  he  saw 
that  until  he  could  conquer  Eng- 
land he  could  never  be  master  of 
Europe,  because  England  would 
always  be  able  to  help  those  who 
rebelled  against  him,  and  he  knew 
that  he  would  never  conquer  Eng- 
land until  he  could  defeat  her  fleet. 
The  British  stood  between  Napo- 
leon and  the  domination  of  the 
world.  So  in  1802  the  Treaty  of 
Amiens  was  made,  whereby  England  restored  to  France, 
Spain,  and  Holland  all  her  conquests  except  Ceylon  and 
Trinidad,  and  Napoleon  abandoned  Egypt  and  the  south 
of  Italy.  This  brought  the  first  stage  of  the  fourth 
struggle  between  France  and  England  to  a  close. 

8.  During  this  war  a  very  important  step  had  been 
taken  in  the  British  Isles.  The  danger  to  the  Empire 
from  so  many  enemies  had  forced  people  to  see  that  if 
they  were  to  be  safe  they  must  all  be  united  at  home, 
so  in  1800  Ireland  was  joined  to  Great  Britain ;  and 
England,   Scotland,  and   Ireland  became   the  United 


The  Union  Jack  in 
use  since  1801 


116     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

Kingdom.  The  Irish  Parliament  was  done  away  with, 
and  the  Irish  began  to  send  members  to  the  British 
Parliament,  in  the  same  way  as  the  English,  the  Scots, 
and  the  Welsh.  At  the  same  time  the  cross  of  St. 
Patrick  was  added  to  the  crosses  of  St.  George  and  St. 
Andrew  on  the  British  flag,  and  so,  for  the  first  time, 
the  Union  Jack  floated  out  upon  the  breezes  of  heaven. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  WAR  WITH  NAPOLEON1 

u  We  are  left,  or  shall  be  left,  alone, 
The  last  that  dare  to  struggle  with  the  foe. 
'Tis  well !  from  this  day  forward  we  shall  know 
That  in  ourselves  our  safety  must  be  sought, 
That  by  our  own  right  hands  it  must  be  wrought ; 
That  we  must  stand  unpropped,  or  be  brought  low." 

— Wordsworth. 

1.  The  Peace  of  Amiens  was  only  a  truce.  As 
England  refused  to  submit  to  his  orders,  Napoleon 
determined  to  make  a  tremendous  effort  to  crush 
her  independence  and  break  up  the  Empire.  As 
usual,  he  began  by  stirring  up  trouble  in  India; 
but  this  was  put  down  at  the  battle  of  Assaye,  by 
Sir  Arthur  Wellesley,  who  afterwards  became  famous 
as  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  When  the  Indian  attempt 
had  failed,  Napoleon  made  up  his  mind  that  he  could 
only  prevent  the  British  interfering  with  his  designs 
by   striking  at  the  heart  of  his  enemy.     So   in   1804, 

1  See  map  on  p.  20. 


THE   WAR   WITH   NAPOLEON 


117 


after  he  had  made  himself  Emperor  of  the  French, 
he  encamped  a  huge  army  of  100,000  men  on  the 
coast  of  France  ready  to  cross  over  into  England. 
At  the  same  time  he  collected  a  great  fleet  off  the 
coast  of  Spain  to  convoy  it  across.  "  Let  us  be  masters 
of  the  Channel  for  six  hours,"  said  Napoleon,  "  and  we 
are  masters  of  the  World."  And  he  was  so  sure  of 
victory  that  he  had  a  special  medal  cast  in  honour 


Napoleon's  Medal  struck  to  commemorate  the  Invasion 
of  England  which  never  took  place 

{From  a  cast  in  the  British  Museum) 


of  his  triumph.  Terror  spread  in  England.  The  coasts 
were  guarded,  and  beacons  were  put  up,  ready  to  be 
lighted  the  moment  the  enemy  came  in  sight.  People 
scarcely  slept  for  fear.  Day  after  day  they  waited,  but 
still  Napoleon  did  not  move.  He  was  waiting  for  the 
fleet  that  was  to  guard  this  mighty  army  on  its  way 
across  the  Channel;  and  that  fleet  never  came.  For 
the  great  Nelson,  who  had  foiled  his  plans  so  often, 
defeated  him  once  more. 

2.  Nelson   fought    a    great   campaign   to    prevent 


118     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

Napoleon's  fleet  reaching  the  Channel.  This  campaign 
ended  in  the  glorious  victory  of  Trafalgar.  Every- 
body knows  the  story  of  Trafalgar.  Nelson  knew 
that  the  fate  of  England  hung  upon  the  result 
of  the  battle.  So  before  the  fight  began  he  put  up 
his  famous  signal  for  all  his  fleet  to  see :  "  England 
expects  that  every  man  will  do  his  duty."  How  well 
that  duty  was  done  was  shown  at  the  end  of  the  long 
fight,  for  at  sunset  twenty  of  the  enemy's  ships  had 
fallen  into  British  hands,  and  both  the  French  and 
the  Spanish  admirals  had  been  taken  prisoners.  Eng- 
land was  saved,  and  all  Napoleon's  army  could  not 
touch  her.  Once  again  Nelson  had  crushed  his  hopes, 
but  it  was  for  the  last  time,  for  "  the  greatest  sailor 
since  the  world  began  "  had  fallen  during  his  greatest 
victory.  When  the  news  reached  England,  people  did 
not  know  whether  to  be  more  glad  because  they  were 
saved,  or  more  sorry  because  their  hero  was  killed. 
Unfortunately  for  England,  she  lost  another  of  her 
great  men  shortly  afterwards.  For  early  in  1806 
William  Pitt,  who  had  been  Prime  Minister  during 
all  the  difficult  years  of  the  war,  also  died.  Pitt's 
spirit  is  best  shown  by  his  own  words.  "England," 
said  he,  "  has  saved  herself  by  her  courage ;  she  will 
save  Europe  by  her  example."  It  was  Pitt  who  more 
than  any  one  else  gave  England  the  courage  to  play 
the  part  she  did. 

3.  From  this  time  Napoleon  had  to  change  his  plans, 
and  attack  the  British  in  another  way.  He  could  not 
reach  England  with  his  army,  for  the  British  had  swept 
every  other  navy  from  off  the  seas,  and  would  not  allow 
his  army  to  cross  over.     But  still  he  was  determined  to 


THE   WAR   WITH   NAPOLEON 


119 


crush  her,  and  he  thought  he  would  ruin  her  by  de- 
stroying her  trade.  If  she  was  mistress  of  the  sea,  he 
would  make  himself  master  of  the  land,  and  shut  her 
commerce  out  of  all  the  ports  of  Europe.     And  so  the 


The  "Victory 


rest  of  the  war  is  the  story  of  how  he  fought  battle  after 
battle,  and  conquered  country  after  country,  in  order  to 
make  the  whole  of  Europe  into  one  great  state  to  break 
the  power  of  England.  Each  country  that  he  conquered 
was  forced   to  join  his   Continental  System  and  shut 


120     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

her  ports  against  British  goods  and  British  traders. 
England  answered  by  refusing  to  allow  the  traders 
of  the  rest  of  the  world  to  trade  with  France,  or 
the  States  that  obeyed  her.  So  though  England 
suffered  from  being  shut  out  of  Europe,  Europe  suf- 
fered still  more ; 
for  it  was  cut  oft* 
from  the  outside 
world  and  worn 
out  with  wars, 
until  at  last  its 
peoples  began  to 
rise  up  against 
Napoleon. 

4.  The  first 
people  who  rose 
against  him  were 
the  Spanish  and 
the  Portuguese, 
who  opened  their 
ports  to  British 
ships,  and  asked 
for  help  from  Eng- 
land. So,  in  1808, 
Sir  Arthur  Wel- 
lesley  (who  after- 
wards became  the  great  Duke  of  Wellington)  was  sent 
out  to  Portugal  with  an  English  army,  which  fought  one 
of  the  greatest  wars  in  the  history  of  the  British  Empire. 
Wellington's  army  was  small,  and  very  often  it  could 
get  no  food,  but  for  five  long  years  it  fought  on  and 
on,  and  gradually  the  power  of  Napoleon  was  broken. 


The  Duke  of  Wellington 


THE   WAR  WITH   NAPOLEON  121 

The  French,  who  were  also  righting  in  other  parts, 
of  Europe,  were  driven  back,  first  out  of  Portugal, 
and  then  out  of  Spain,  and  at  last  they  were  forced 
across  the  Pyrenees  back  into  France.  There  were 
so  many  battles  that  you  could  not  remember  them 
all,  so  we  will  only  give  the  names  of  a  few  of  the 
most  important.     There  was  the  battle  of  Talavera  in 

1809,  which  Wellington  called  "  the  hardest  fought 
of  modern  times "  ;  there  was  the  battle  of  Busaco  in 

1810,  where  the  fighting  became  so  hot  and  close  that 
the  men  had  to  use  their  fists  because  there  was  no 
room  even  for  their  bayonets.  Then  there  was  the 
famous  siege  of  Ciudad  Rodrigo,  which  Wellington 
took  by  such  a  sudden  attack  that  it  was  said  he 
"  jumped  on  it  with  both  his  feet."  In  the  same  year 
the  French  army  was  destroyed  at  Salamanca.  "  I 
never  saw  an  army  receive  such  a  beating,"  said  Wel- 
lington after  the  battle.  Besides  these,  a  great  many 
strong  towns  had  to  be  taken  and  a  great  many  other 
battles  fought,  before  the  long,  final,  nine  days'  struggle 
in  which  the  French  were  at  last  driven  back  across 
the  rocks  and  passes  of  the  Pyrenees  into  their  own 
country. 

5.  While  this  great  war  was  going  on  in  Portugal, 
the  rest  of  Europe,  too,  had  joined  in  the  revolt 
against  Napoleon,  and  finally  defeated  him  in  the 
mighty  battle  called  the  Battle  of  the  Nations  at 
Leipzig.  Then  the  allies  followed  Napoleon  to  Paris, 
and  made  him  give  up  his  crown,  and  sent  him  to 
the  little  island  of  Elba  in  the  Mediterranean,  which 
they  gave  him  for  his  kingdom.  A  few  months  later 
Napoleon   escaped,  and  landed  again  in   France.     He 


122     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

soon  collected  an  army,  and  seized  back  his  throne; 
but  his  new  reign  lasted  a  very  short  time,  for  all 
Europe  rose  against  him.  Within  a  hundred  days 
Napoleon  encountered  Wellington,  helped  by  the 
Prussians,  at  the  famous  battle  of  Waterloo,  and  was 
utterly  defeated.  After  the  battle  Napoleon  gave 
himself  up  to  a  British  man-of-war,  and  was  sent  to 
spend  the  rest  of  his  days  in  the  island  of  St.  Helena, 
far  away  in  the  South  Atlantic  Ocean. 

6.  The  battle  of  Waterloo  brought  the  long  struggle 
between  France  and  England  to  a  close.  The  danger 
which  had  threatened  to  destroy  the  liberty  of  the 
Empire  had  finally  disappeared.  After  the  final  defeat 
of  Napoleon,  France,  England,  and  indeed  all  Europe, 
were  so  exhausted  that  they  could  think  of  nothing 
but  how  to  repair  the  losses  they  had  received.  So  a 
congress  of  all  the  powers  met  in  1815  at  Paris  to 
settle  the  terms  of  peace.  By  the  Peace  of  Paris,  which 
this  congress  approved,  England  retained  almost  all 
the  conquests  she  had  made  in  the  Napoleonic  wars. 
In  this  way  the  Cape  (the  most  important  stopping- 
place  on  the  road  to  India),  Ceylon,  British  Guiana, 
Honduras,  Tobago,  Malta,  and  Mauritius  all  became 
part  of  the  Empire. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

SUMMARY  OF  THE   THIRD   PERIOD 

1.  So  the  long  struggle  between  France,  the  great  land- 
power,  and  England,  the  great  sea-power,  which  had 


SUMMARY   OF   THE   THIRD   PERIOD       123 

begun  in  1689,  came  to  an  end  in  1815.  It  had  taken 
125  years  and  four  terrific  struggles  for  England  finally 
to  ward  off  the  French  danger,  and  so  preserve  her 
own  freedom  and  the  Empire  from  destruction,  and 
during  those  struggles  England  had  not  only  defended 
herself,  but  had  enlarged  her  Empire  as  well.  Now  let 
us  turn  back  for  a  little,  and  see  how  England's 
Empire  of  1689  had  grown  into  the  British  Empire 
of  1815. 

2.  You  will  remember  that  at  the  beginning  of  the 
third  period  England  had  just  won  the  command  of  the 
sea  after  her  three  wars  with  the  Dutch.  At  that  time 
her  Empire  was  not  very  large,  and  was  of  two  kinds. 
There  were  the  real  colonies  along  the  east  coast  of 
North  America,  and  there  were  the  trading  stations  in 
the  West  Indies,  Africa,  and  India.  The  colonies  in 
North  America  were  peopled  by  white  men  and  women, 
but  they  were  still  small  and  weak,  and  were  liable  to 
be  attacked  by  the  French  from  Canada  to  the  north, 
and  the  Spaniards  from  Florida  to  the  south.  The 
trading  stations  were  mostly  small  islands  and  strips  of 
land  in  Africa  and  India,  where  Englishmen  lived  to 
trade  with  the  natives,  but  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
government.  So  that  in  1689,  though  England  had 
possessions  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  she  had  no 
really  large  pieces  of  land  across  the  seas,  and  no  big 
and  important  colonies. 

3.  Now  look  at  the  map  for  1815  and  you  will  see 
how  the  Empire  has  changed.  First  take  the  colonies. 
All  the  American  settlements  have  disappeared.  They 
broke  away  from  their  Mother-country  during  the  long 
struggle  with  France,  and  have  become  the  United  States. 


124     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE    BRITISH    EMPIRE 

But  in  their  place  new  colonies  in  Canada,  South  Africa, 
and  Australia  have  appeared.  In  1815  these  great 
countries  were  still  almost  empty,  but  they  were  good 
places  for  white  men  and  women  to  settle  and  make 
their  homes  in ;  and  the  Union  Jack  flew  over  each  of 
them  to  guard  it  from  the  attacks  of  enemies.  We 
shall  see  later  on  how  these  new  colonies,  which  were 
small  and  thinly  inhabited  in  1815,  have  since  grown 
rich  and  strong  under  its  protection. 

4.  Then  there  are  the  trading  stations.  These  too 
have  changed  since  1700,  for  the  English  merchants 
and  trading  companies  were  unable  to  stay  quietly  in 
the  stations  they  founded  to  trade  with  the  natives, 
but  had  to  spread  their  power  over  many  of  the  black 
and  brown  races  which  lived  near  by.  In  India,  especi- 
ally, the  officials  of  the  East  India  Company  were  forced 
to  conquer  almost  the  whole  land,  partly  to  save  them- 
selves from  being  destroyed  by  the  natives,  partly 
because  in  no  other  way  could  law  and  order  be  main- 
tained, and  partly  to  keep  India  from  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  French.  So  that  by  the  end  of  the  period 
the  trading  stations  became  great  and  valuable  depen- 
dencies governed  by  white  men.  The  dependencies 
differ  from  the  colonies,  because  white  people  only  go 
there  to  trade  with  the  natives  and  to  govern  them, 
and  not  to  make  their  homes,  as  in  Canada  or  South 
Africa. 

5.  Then,  lastly,  in  addition  to  the  colonies  and  the 
dependencies  there  are  marked  on  the  map  a  great 
many  little  islands  and  ports  in  different  parts  of  the 
world.  These  are  chiefly  useful  not  as  places  to  settle  in 
or  trade  with,  but  as  stopping-places.     There  the  sailing 


SUMMARY   OF   THE   THIRD   PERIOD       125 

vessels  can  put  in  for  fresh  food  and  water  on  their  long 
voyages  between  the  British  Isles  and  the  colonies  and 
dependencies.  The  most  important  of  these  are  the 
naval  stations,  like  Gibraltar,  and  St.  Helena,  and  Malta, 
which  are  like  fortresses  in  the  sea,  and  from  which 
the  British  fleet  can  sail  about  all  over  the  world. 

6.  But  there  is  one  thing  to  do  with  the  Empire 
which  we  cannot  find  on  the  map,  and  which  was  yet 
the  chief  reason  of  its  greatness — sea-power.  It  is  the 
same  in  1815  as  it  was  in  1700.  The  British  navy  is 
still  the  mistress  of  the  sea.  In  1689  England  was 
first  upon  the  sea,  because  she  had  been  victorious  in 
the  three  wars  with  Holland ;  and  in  1815  she  was  still 
first  upon  the  sea,  because  she  had  defeated  France  in 
each  of  the  four  desperate  struggles  between  them. 

7.  So  that  this  third  period  was  a  very  important 
one.  It  was  a  long  period  of  strife,  but  it  led  to  many 
good  results.  It  led  to  the  development  of  a  strong 
yet  free  system  of  parliamentary  government  at  home ; 
for  only  a  strong  government  could  meet  the  danger. 
It  led  to  the  union  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland ; 
because  people  found  that  only  unity  could  give  them 
the  strength  to  resist  their  enemies.  And,  finally,  the 
triumph  of  the  English  navy  made  it  possible  for  the 
Empire  to  develop  in  peace  and  quiet,  as  we  shall  see 
that  it  has  done  during  the  period  that  followed. 

Important  Names  and  Dates  in  the  Third  Period  (1689-1$15) 

1689.  William  of  Orange  becomes  King  of  England.     Beginning  of 

first  struggle  with  France. 
1692.  English  and  Dutch  fleets  defeat  the  French  at  La  Hogue. 
1697.  Treaty  of  Ryswick. 


126     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

1700.  Dampier  visits  Australia. 
1702-13.  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession. 
1704.  Sir  George  Rooke  takes  Gibraltar. 
1707.  Union  of  England  and  Scotland. 
«   1713.  Treaty  of  Utrecht.     End  of  first  struggle  with  France. 

1739.  War  with  Spain. 
-*  1740-48.  War  of  the  Austrian   Succession.      Beginning  of  second 

struggle  with  France. 
1746.  Beginning  of  struggle  between  French  and  English  East 

India  Companies  in  India. 
1748.  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 
1751.  Clive  takes  Arcot  in  India. 

1756.  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta. 

1757.  Clive  defeats  Indians  at  Plassey,  and  foundation  of  British 

Empire  in  India. 
*■*  1756-63.  Seven  Years'  War.     Pitt  becomes  Prime  Minister. 

1758.  Louisburg  on  Cape  Breton  taken  by  English. 

1759.  Hawke  defeats  French  fleet  at  Quiberon  Bay. 

1759.  Conquest  of  Canada.     Wolfe  killed  at  storming  of  Quebec. 

1760.  Sir  Eyre  Coote  defeats  French  at  Wandewash  in  India. 
J/?>  1763.  Treaty  of  Paris.     End  of  second  struggle  with  France. 

1768.  Captain  Cook's  voyages  to  the  Southern  Seas 
«—   1775.  War  with  the  American  colonies. 

1777.  Surrender  of  Sir  John  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga. 

1778-83.  War  with  France.     Beginning  of  third  struggle.    Death  of 

Chatham. 
1780.  Armed  neutrality  of  the  North  against  England. 

1780.  Rodney  defeats  the  Spanish  fleet  off  Cape  St.  Vincent. 

1781.  Cornwallis    surrenders    at    Yorktown.       Independence    of 

American  colonies  and  end  of  war  in  America. 

1782.  Rodney  destroys  the  French  fleet  at  The  Saints  in  the  West 

Indies. 

1783.  Siege  of  Gibraltar  raised  after  four  years. 

1783.  Treaty  of  Versailles.     End  of  third  struggle  with  France. 
1788.  First  settlement  in  Australia. 
"^  1793-1802.  War  of  French  Revolution.    Beginning  of  fourth  struggle 

with  France. 
1794.  Hawke  defeats  the  French  fleet  on  the  "  Glorious  First  of 

June." 
1796.  British  take  Ceylon  and  other  Dutch  colonies. 


SUMMARY  OF  THE  THIRD   PERIOD       127 

1797.  Spanish  fleet  defeated  off  Cape  St.  Vincent.     Nelson  first 

distinguishes  himself.       Dutch  defeated  at  Camperdown. 

1798.  Napoleon  stirs  up  trouble  in  India  and  conquers  Egypt. 
1798.  Nelson  destroys  the  French  fleet  at  the  battle  of  the  Nile. 
1800.  Armed  neutrality  of  the  North  renewed  against  England. 

1800.  Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

1801.  Nelson  destroys  the  Danish  fleet  at  Copenhagen. 

1802.  Treaty  of  Amiens. 

1803-15.  War  of  Napoleon.     He  plans  to  invade  England. 

1805.  French  and  Spanish  fleets  destroyed  at  Trafalgar.    Death  of 

Nelson. 

1806.  English  conquer  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

1806.  Napoleon  plans   to   weaken  England   by  the   Continental 

System. 
1808-14.  Peninsular  War.     England  sends  help  to  Portugal  and 

Spain. 

1809.  Wellington  defeats  French  at  Talavera. 

1810.  Wellington  defeats  French  at  Busaco. 

1812.  Wellington  takes  Ciudad  Rodrigo,  and  defeats  French  at 
Salamanca. 

1812.  America  declares  war  on  England. 

1813.  Wellington  defeats   French   at   the    Pyrenees   and   enters 

France. 

1813.  Napoleon   defeated  at   the   "Battle    of    the  Nations"  at 

Leipzig. 

1814.  Napoleon  sent  to  Elba. 

1815.  Napoleon  returns  and  is  defeated  at  Waterloo. 

1815.  Treaty  of  Paris.    End  of  fourth  and  last  struggle  with  France. 


PART    IV 

PERIOD   OF  INTERNAL   DEVELOPMENT 

CHAPTER   XXIV 

BRITAIN  IN   THE   NINETEENTH  CENTURY 

u  This  royal  throne  of  kings,  this  sceptred  isle, 
This  earth  of  majesty,  this  seat  of  Mars, 
This  other  Eden,  demi-paradise, 
This  fortress,  built  by  Nature  for  herself 
Against  infection  and  the  hand  of  war ; 
This  happy  breed  of  men,  this  little  world, 
This  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea, 
Or  as  a  moat  defensive  to  a  house, 
Against  the  envy  of  less  happier  lands  ; 
This  blessed  plot,  this  earth,  this  realm,  this  England, 
This  land  of  such  dear  souls,  this  dear,  dear  land, 
England  bound  in  by  the  triumphant  sea, 
Whose  rocky  shore  beats  back  the  envious  siege 
Of  watery  Neptune." 

—Shakespeare,  Richard  II. 

1.  Now  we  come  to  the  fourth  period  in  the  history  of 
the  British  Empire,  which  lasts  almost  to  the  present 
day.  You  remember  that  during  nearly  the  whole  of 
the  eighteenth  century  Great  Britain  was  fighting 
a  desperate  struggle  with  France  to  preserve  her 
liberty  and  independence.     You  remember,  too,  that 

128 


BRITAIN   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     129 

her  sea-power  gained  her  the  victory,  even  against 
Napoleon,  and  made  her  the  first  colonising  power  in 
the  world.  Fortunately  for  England,  Europe  was  worn 
out  by  these  fearful  wars,  and  a  long  period  of  peace 
set  in.  This  peace  brought  two  good  results.  The 
people  in  the  British  Isles  were  able  to  turn  all 
their  minds  to  trade  and  manufacture  and  to  im- 
proving their  system  of  government ;  so  that  England 
recovered  from  the  long  strain  of  the  war,  and  became 
vigorous  and  prosperous  once  more.  And  in  the 
colonies  it  allowed  the  settlers  thoroughly  to  explore 
their  new  homes,  and  to  build  them  up  into  the  strong 
Dominions  that  they  are  to-day.  So  the  nineteenth 
century  is  called  the  period  of  internal  development 
of  the  Empire. 

2.  In  the  beginning  of  the  century  there  took  place 
in  England  what  was  known  as  the  Industrial  Revolu- 
tion. Up  to  this  time  most  of  the  people  in  the  British 
Isles  had  made  their  living  by  farming.  The  manufac- 
tures were  small,  and  were  generally  done  by  men  and 
women  in  their  own  homes.  But  now  a  great  change 
took  place.  The  power  of  steam  was  discovered,  the  first 
steam-engines  were  made,  and  machinery  was  invented 
to  do  a  great  part  of  the  work  which  before  people 
had  done  with  their  own  hands.  Factories  were  built 
where  the  machinery  was  put  up,  and  the  people  came 
to  live  in  towns  to  be  near  the  factories,  instead  of 
living  and  working  in  their  country  cottages  as  before. 
Then  ,  great  mining  and  industrial  towns  sprang  up 
wherever  iron  ore  and  coal  were  found,  and  still  better 
machinery  was  made.  And  all  the  time  railways,  canals, 
and  steamers  were  being  built  to  carry  people  and 


130     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

manufactures  quickly  and  cheaply  from  place  to  place 
both  by  land  and  sea. 

3.  The  effect  of  all  these  discoveries  and  inventions 
was  that  British  trade  grew  tremendously  all  over  the 
world.  For  on  the  one  hand,  when  England's  own  needs 
were  supplied,  manufacturers  had  to  find  fresh  people 
in  other  countries  to  buy  their  goods ;  and  on  the 
other,  the  British  Isles  were  no  longer  able  to  grow 
enough  food  for  the  millions  in  the  new  towns,  and  corn 
and  food  had  to  be  brought  in  from  across  the  sea.  So 
merchants  began  to  travel  all  over  the  world,  selling 
the  goods  that  were  made  in  England,  and  buying  in 
return  food  for  the  British  workmen  to  eat,  and  raw 
materials,  like  wool  and  cotton,  for  them  to  use  in  their 
manufactures.  In  this  way  the  British  became  the 
greatest  manufacturing  people  in  the  world.  Their 
merchants  and  ships  were  in  every  port,  and  their  en- 
gineers and  business  men  were  working  and  trading  in 
half  the  countries  of  the  globe.  As  we  shall  see  in  the 
next  chapters,  it  was  because  of  this  great  world-wide 
trade  that  the  Dominions  grew  so  great,  and  that  places 
valuable  for  trade  like  Burma,  the  Straits  Settlements, 
Hong-Kong,  and  parts  of  Central  Africa,  came  to  be 
added  to  the  British  Empire. 

4.  After  the  industrial  revolution  another  movement 
began.  More  and  more  people  began  to  discover  that 
the  colonies  were  very  pleasant  places  to  live  in,  and 
that  it  was  easier  to  make  a  living  there  than  in  the 
older  countries  of  Europe.  And  bigger  and  faster  steam- 
ships and  better  railways  were  built  to  carry  them  across 
the  seas  and  from  place  to  place  in  the  new  countries. 
In  consequence  a  great  tide  of  emigration  set  in  during 


BRITAIN   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY     131 

the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  numbers 
of  men  and  women  left  the  British  Isles,  and  also 
Europe,  to  settle  in  America  and  the  British  colonies. 
It  was  in  this  way  that  the  Dominions  gained  most  of 
their  population. 

5.  But  the  British  Government  had  also  to  face  the 
question  of  how  to  govern  this  great  Empire  which  was 
developing  so  fast.  We  have  already  learnt  that  the 
countries  of  the  Empire  fall  into  two  groups — the 
Dominions  in  the  temperate  zones,  where  white  people 
live,  and  the  Dependencies  in  the  tropics,  which  are 
the  homes  of  the  coloured  peoples.  These  two  groups 
could  not  be  governed  in  the  same  way. 

6.  In  the  Dominions  was  set  up  the  same  kind  of 
government  that  existed  in  the  British  Isles.  Before 
1832  only  the  richer  people  in  England  had  taken  part 
in  politics,  but  in  that  year  a  Reform  Bill  was  passed 
to  give  the  poorer  classes  votes  for  members  of  Par- 
liament. When  once  the  great  mass  of  the  British 
people  had  begun  to  share  in  the  government  of  their 
country,  the  idea  soon  gained  ground  that  the  white 
people  in  the  colonies  should  be  allowed  to  manage 
their  own  affairs  too.  So  in  1840  what  is  known  as 
responsible  government  was  started  in  Canada.  That 
is  to  say,  the  Canadians  were  given  the  right  to  manage 
all  the  affairs  of  their  own  country,  although  every- 
thing that  had  to  do  with  the  rest  of  the  Empire,  or 
with  foreign  lands,  was  still  left  in  the  hands  of  Great 
Britain.  This  experiment  was  such  a  success  that  re- 
sponsible government  was  afterwards  given  to  all  the 
other  parts  of  the  Empire  that  were  chiefly  inhabited 
by  white  men. 


132     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

7.  This  settled  the  question  of  how  the  Dominions 
were  to  be  governed ;  but  it  did  not  help  in  the  problem 
of  the  Dependencies,  for  the  black  and  brown  peoples 
were  not  civilised  enough  to  govern  themselves  pro- 
perly. It  was  found  that  if  riot,  and  bloodshed,  and 
torture  were  to  be  put  down,  and  liberty  and  justice  set 
up  instead,  the  British  had  to  keep  the  government  of 
these  countries  in  their  own  hands.  And  we  shall  see 
later  how  everywhere  they  have  put  an  end  to  slavery, 
and  civil  war,  and  tyranny,  and  how  the  progress  of 
the  Dependencies,  and  the  lives  and  happiness  of  their 
peoples,  depend  upon  the  justice  and  wisdom  of 
British  rule. 

8.  So  then  the  nineteenth  century  was  the  period 
of  the  internal  development  of  the  Empire.  It  was 
a  time  of  peaceful  growth,  for  there  was  no  rival  to 
the  British  navy  on  the  sea,  and  the  other  powers 
of  the  world  were  too  busy  with  their  own  affairs  to 
bother  with  the  Empire.  But  unfortunately  a  change 
in  this  state  of  affairs  came  about  in  the  first  years 
of  the  twentieth  century.  By  1900,  the  world  had 
recovered  from  the  exhaustion  of  the  Napoleonic  wars, 
and  several  other  great  empires  had  sprung  up  as 
rivals  to  the  British  Empire,  as  a  glance  at  the  map 
will  show.  France  had  acquired  a  great  dominion  in 
Northern  and  Central  Africa  and  in  the  Far  East. 
Russia  had  stretched  right  across  the  Continent  of  Asia 
till  she  had  reached  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  United 
States  had  grown  so  fast  that  they  contained  nearly  a 
hundred  million  people.  The  German  people  had 
welded  themselves  together  into  the  strongest  military 
power  in  the  world,  and  possessed  a  great  navy  as  well. 


THE   EXPANSION   OF   CANADA  133 

Japan  had  shown  the  latent  strength  of  the  Asiatic 
people,  and  a  host  of  smaller  powers  had  also  begun  to 
stir.  It  became  clear  that  the  competition  between  the 
great  nations  of  the  earth,  which  had  ceased  for  a  time 
after  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  was  beginning  again,  and 
that  a  new  period  in  the  history  of  the  Empire  had 
commenced.  The  era  of  peaceful  growth,  undisturbed 
by  the  thought  of  foreign  powers  or  external  dangers, 
was  past.  We  shall  see  in  later  chapters  what  results 
it  brought  in  its  train. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

THE   EXPANSION  OF  CANADA 

1.  You  know  how  Canada  became  part  of  the  British 
Empire  in  1763,  after  Wolfe  had  defeated  Montcalm  at 
Quebec.  Before  that  it  had  been  a  French  colony,  and 
so,  naturally,  even  after  it  came  under  the  British  flag, 
nearly  every  one  who  lived  in  it  was  French.  But  you 
remember  how,  a  few  years  later,  when  the  English 
colonies  in  America  rebelled,  a  great  many  of  the 
colonists  in  New  England  would  not  join  in  lighting 
their  Mother-country,  but  left  their  homes  and  went 
and  settled  in  Canada.  We  saw  that  these  people  were 
called  United  Empire  Loyalists,  and  that  they  settled 
in  two  parties,  one  near  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
River,  in  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  and  the 
other  higher  up  the  river  in  Ontario  near  the  Great 
Lakes.  Unfortunately,  it  was  not  long  before  the  British 
colonists  and  the  old  French  settlers  began  to  quarrel 


134     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

with  one  another.  The  British  wanted  to  manage  their 
own  affairs  in  their  own  way,  and  did  not  like  the 
French  laws  or  the  French  language ;  and  the  French 
wanted  things  to  go  on  just  as  they  were,  and  objected 
to  the  changes  proposed  by  the  newcomers.  The 
dispute  was  settled  for  a  time  by  dividing  Canada  into 
two  parts,  Upper  and  Lower  Canada.  Upper  Canada, 
which  is  now  called  Ontario,  was  to  be  the  home  of  the 
British  people  and  to  be  governed  by  British  laws  ;  and 
Lower  Canada,  the  country  round  Quebec,  was  to  be 
left  to  the  French  with  their  own  laws  and  their  own 
language.  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  were  to 
be  two  separate  colonies,  and  except  for  Newfoundland 
and  a  tiny  settlement  in  British  Columbia,  far  away  on 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  rest  of  Canada  was  still  almost 
unexplored. 

2.  In  1812,  war  broke  out  between  England  and 
America,  because,  as  you  will  remember,  Napoleon  tried 
to  conquer  England  by  ruining  her  trade,  and  England 
answered  by  refusing  to  allow  any  outside  country  to 
trade  with  Europe.  This  affected  the  United  States, 
and  so  they  went  to  war  with  England.  At  first  the 
American  ships  won  some  success,  but,  after  a  time,  the 
stronger  British  navy  swept  them  off  the  seas.  Then 
the  Americans  did  their  best  to  conquer  Canada  by 
land,  so  as  to  force  it  to  join  the  United  States,  and  for 
two  years  the  war  raged  backwards  and  forwards  along 
the  frontier.  First  one  side  and  then  the  other  invaded 
the  enemy's  country ;  and  sometimes  one  side,  and 
sometimes  the  other,  gained  the  victory.  The  best 
general  on  the  British  side  was  General  Brock,  who 
once  took  prisoner  an  American  army  twice  as  big  as 


THE   EXPANSION   OF   CANADA  135 

his  own.  In  the  end  he  was  killed  in  a  battle  near  the 
Niagara  Falls,  bravely  saving  his  country  from  attack. 
At  last,  in  1814,  when  Napoleon  had  been  driven  from 
his  throne  and  the  Treaty  of  Paris  was  being  arranged, 
peace  was  made  in  America  too.  Each  side  saw  that  it 
could  not  conquer  the  other,  so  they  agreed  to  stop 
fighting  and  to  leave  matters  as  they  were  before  the 
war.  Since  then,  the  United  States  and  the  Empire 
have  been  at  peace. 

3.  After  1814,  the  history  of  Canada  falls  into 
three  parts.  The  first  part  lasted  from  1814  to  1840, 
when  responsible  government  was  introduced  and  the 
Canadians  began  to  manage  their  own  domestic  affairs. 
The  second  lasted  from  1840  to  1872,  during  which  all 
the  separate  colonies  in  Canada  were  joined  together 
into  one  great  dominion.  And  the  third  is  the  period 
in  which  Canada  has  been  increasing  her  population, 
and  has  grown  year  by  year  a  richer  and  more  im- 
portant part  of  the  Empire.  Now  let  us  see  what 
happened  in  the  first  period. 

4.  By  1814,  there  was  a  large  English,  as  well  as  a 
large  French,  population  in  Canada.  For  a  time  their 
old  quarrels  were  forgotten,  for  both  of  them  had  united 
in  fighting  bravely  for  their  country  against  the  Ameri- 
cans. But  soon  new  troubles  arose.  There  were  many 
difficulties  about  the  government  of  the  colonies  in 
those  days,  for  London  and  Canada  were  very  far  apart, 
and  as  there  were  no  telegraphs  or  steamships,  news 
travelled  very  slowly.  The  English  ministers  could 
know  little  about  the  affairs  of  Canada,  and  they  used 
to  interfere  in  a  way  that  made  the  people  angry.  The 
Governors  who  were  sent  out  from  England  often  knew 


136     THE   GKOWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

very  little  either,  and  then  they  fell  under  the  influence 
of  a  few  powerful  families  who  gave  them  bad  advice. 
So  the  people  were  not  satisfied,  and  complained  more 
and  more  that  they  were  badly  governed.  Then  to  add 
to  the  troubles,  the  old  quarrels  between  the  French 
and  English  colonists  broke  out  once  more. 

5.  At   last   the    confusion   grew  so    bad    that   the 
English  Government  sent  Lord  Durham  to  find  out 

o 

what  was  really  the  matter,  and  to  tell  them  what 
should  be  done  to  set  things  right.  Lord  Durham  was 
a  clever  statesman,  and  he  saw  that  there  was  only  one 
way  out  of  the  difficulty.  The  Canadians  must  be 
allowed  to  manage  the  internal  affairs  of  their  own 
country  in  their  own  way  ;  and  the  French  and  English 
colonists,  instead  of  being  kept  apart  as  they  had  been 
before,  must  be  brought  face  to  face  in  one  Parliament, 
so  as  to  learn  to  know  and  respect  each  other,  and  to 
work  together  for  the  good  of  their  common  country. 
So,  in  1839,  the  Durham  Report  was  published  which 
was  to  change  the  whole  state  of  Canada.  In  it  Lord 
Durham  advised  that  Canada  should  be  given  re- 
sponsible government,  and  that  Upper  Canada  where 
the  British  lived,  and  Lower  Canada  where  the 
French  lived,  should  be  joined  together  under  one 
parliament.  The  British  Government  took  Lord  Dur- 
ham's advice,  and  in  1840,  the  first  of  the  daughter- 
parliaments  of  the  Empire  was  brought  into  being. 
Soon  afterwards  responsible  government  was  given  to 
the  other  British  colonies  in  North  America  as  well. 
This  brings  us  to  the  end  of  the  first  period  in  the 
history  of  modern  Canada.  The  first  step  had  been 
taken  towards  making  all  Canada  a  nation. 


THE   FEDERATION   OF   CANADA  139 

stretched  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  far-off  Rocky 
Mountains  might  be.  At  this  time  a  great  part  of  it 
belonged  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company.  Countless 
herds  of  buffalo  wandered  over  the  prairies,  and  the 
forests  and  mountains  in  the  north  and  the  west  were 
full  of  animals  covered  with  valuable  furs.  For  years 
it  had  been  left  in  the  hands  of  Indians  and  a  few 
traders.  But  lately  daring  men  had  begun  to  explore 
this  unknown  country.  Some  pushed  far  to  the  frozen 
north,  and  others  tried  to  find  a  way  ^over  the  wild 
Rocky  Mountains  to  the  sea ;  and  so  gradually  all 
the  Great  West  was  discovered.  But  there  was  no 
proper  government  over  it,  and  people  became  afraid 
that  if  it  was  not  properly  colonised  and  governed 
it  would  be  seized  by  somebody  else,  and  so  lost  to 
Canada. 

3.  So  there  were  many  reasons  to  show  that  the 
separate  colonies  ought  to  be  joined  together  to  make 
one  strong  State.  The  idea  of  federation,  as  it  was 
called,  was  eagerly  taken  up,  especially  by  Sir  John 
Macdonald,  the  Prime  Minister  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Canada.  At  last,  after  a  great  many  difficulties,  all 
the  leading  Canadians  agreed  to  it,  and  an  Act  was 
passed  through  the  British  Parliament  in  1867,  called 
the  British  North  America  Act,  by  which  the  old  colony 
of  Canada  (now  called  Ontario  and  Quebec),  Nova 
Scotia,  and  New  Brunswick  were  federated  into  the 
Dominion  of  Canada.  Three  years  later  all  the  lands 
of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  in  the  Great  West 
were  bought  by  the  new  Government.  These  have 
recently  been  divided  into  the  three  provinces  of 
Manitoba,  Saskatchewan,  and  Alberta.      In  1871  the 


140     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

colony  of  British  Columbia,  which  lies  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  facing  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
joined  the  Federation,  and  so  by  1872  the  great 
Dominion  was  complete.  One  government  was  set 
up  over  the  whole  vast  county,  from  the  Atlantic  to 


Winnipeg,  the  Capital  op  Manitoba 

(By  kind  permission  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway) 


the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the 
North  Pole,  and  Canada  became  the  first  and  the 
most  important  of  the  self-governing  dominions  of 
the  British  Empire.  Of  all  the  Canadian  colonies  only 
Newfoundland  still  remains  an  independent  colony. 
4.  The  last  period  in  the  history  of  modern  Canada 


THE    FEDERATION   OF   CANADA  141 

is  going  on  still.  It  is  called  the  period  of  national 
development.  No  sooner  was  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment in  power  than  they  began  to  build  a  railway- 
right  across  the  continent,  from  ocean  to  ocean,  to  bind 
the  whole  land  together  with  a  band  of  steel.  It  was 
a  mighty  enterprise  to  lay  a  railway  over  such  thousands 
of  miles  of  empty  country,  and  across  ranges  of  wild, 
unexplored  mountains.  But  the  builders  set  to  work, 
and  although,  when  they  had  got  half-way  across  the 
continent,  no  pass  had  yet  been  found  through  the 
mountains,  they  persevered,  and  at  last,  by  the  end 
of  1885,  the  railway  was  finished.  It  was  not  long 
before  the  good  results  showed,  for  the  railway  opened 
up  the  whole  country,  and  people  began  to  grow  crops 
and  raise  cattle  on  the  great  plains  in  the  middle 
of  Canada.  They  found  that  for  hundreds  and 
hundreds  of  miles  the  prairie  was  the  best  country 
in  the  world  for  growing  wheat.  As  this  news  spread, 
people  flocked  in  from  the  British  Isles,  and  from 
America  and  Europe,  and  very  soon  there  were 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  farmers  in  the  Canadian 
West.  After  the  settlers  came  others — traders,  doctors, 
lawyers,  and  men  with  money  to  dig  coal-mines  and 
start  other  industries.  So  the  rush  of  immigrants  set 
in,  and  it  is  still  going  on,  for  the  resources  of  Canada 
seem  endless.  Some  of  the  newcomers  stay  in  the  east 
of  Canada  to  grow  fruit  and  corn,  and  to  raise  cattle 
and  hogs ;  some  go  right  across  to  British  Columbia  to 
farm  and  grow  fruit  in  the  rich  valleys  in  the  hills, 
to  mine  or  cut  lumber  in  the  forests  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  or  to  fish  or  trade  on  the  Pacific  Ocean; 
but  most  of  them  stop  on  the  prairies  of  the  centre, 


1.  Ploughing,  Hanna's  Farm.  2.  Harvesting 

3.  Farm  in  the  Far  West 


(By  kind  permission  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway) 


THE   FEDERATION   OF   CANADA  143 

growing  wheat,  and  helping  to  push  ever  farther  and 
farther  to  the  great  unknown  North. 

5.  This  rapid  growth  in  her  population  and  pros- 
perity has  naturally  made  Canada  think  of  her  position 
in  the  world.  She  is  no  longer  a  weak  country  alto- 
gether depending  on  the  Mother-country,  but  a  rich 
State,  able  to  defend  herself,  and  to  take  her  share  in 
the  responsibilities  of  the  Empire.  She  sees  that  other 
great  peoples  are  rising  up  in  different  parts  of  the 
world,  and  that  the  time  may  come  when  England  by 
herself  may  not  be  strong  enough  to  defend  the 
Empire  from  attack.  So  England's  eldest  daughter 
has  come  forward  to  aid  her  to  bear  the  burden. 
In  1897  she  helped  on  the  trade  of  Great  Britain  by 
giving  goods  produced  within  the  Empire  what  is 
called  a  preference  over  the  goods  of  foreign  countries. 
That  is  to  say,  British  goods  were  allowed  into  Canada 
on  payment  of  a  lower  rate  of  duty  than  foreign  goods. 
Three  years  later  the  South  African  War  broke  out, 
and  hundreds  of  Canadians  went  to  fight  side  by  side 
with  the  British  troops  for  the  honour  and  safety  of 
the  Empire.  Then  the  question  of  naval  defence  came 
to  the  front  in  1909,  and  Canada  began  to  build  men- 
of-war  to  defend  her  own  shores,  and  to  help  in  main- 
taining the  supremacy  of  the  British  Navy  at  sea.  So 
we  see  that  Canada  has  had  to  look  once  more  beyond 
her  own  borders,  and  to  take  account  of  what  is  going 
on  in  the  outside  world.  With  Canada  as  with  England 
a  new  period  has  set  in  with  the  twentieth  century. 


144    THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 
CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE   COLONISATION  OF  AUSTRALIA 

1.  In  an  earlier  chapter  we  learnt  how  Australia 
came  to  be  discovered,  and  how  it  was  colonised.  To 
begin  with,  the  new  settlement  did  not  grow  very  fast. 
The  first  settlements  were  made  on  the  south-eastern 
coast — the  portion  farthest  from  England,  and  in 
Tasmania  still  farther  away.  There  was,  therefore, 
little  trade  between  England  and  Australia  in  the 
early  days,  and  the  population  of  the  country  grew 
very  slowly.  Even  as  late  as  1820  the  settlements  on 
the  mainland  of  the  continent  covered  little  more  than 
the  town  of  Sydney  and  the  country  round  about  it. 

2.  But  about  1826  the  area  of  colonisation  began 
to  increase  rapidly.  In  the  first  place,  in  that  year 
some  people  thought  that  instead  of  sailing  all  round 
Australia  to  Sydney,  they  would  explore  the  south- 
western corner  and  see  if  there  was  not  rich  land  to 
be  found  there.  So  there  they  landed  and  founded 
the  town  of  Albany,  and  later  on  the  settlement  grew 
into  the  great  state  of  Western  Australia,  which  now 
covers  one-third  of  the  whole  continent. 

3.  In  the  second  place,  immigration  of  settlers  was 
brought  about  through  the  agitation  against  the  trans- 
portation of  convicts  to  Australia.  You  will  remember 
how  the  British  Government  used  to  send  their  convicts 
to  America,  and  how,  after  the  New  England  colonies 
had  broken  away,  they  began  to  send  them  to  Australia 


THE   COLONISATION   OF  AUSTRALIA      145 

instead.  As  we  have  already  learnt,  many  of  these 
convicts  were  not  wicked  men.  They  were  poachers 
and  unruly  soldiers  who  had  nothing  to  do  when  peace 
was  declared,  and  troublesome  and  rebellious  politicians 
whom  the  Government  were  anxious  to  get  rid  of. 
Some  of  these  people  became  afterwards  leading  men 
in  Australia.  But  among  them  were  a  number  of  evil- 
doers, and  as  the  Australian  settlers  wanted  to  build  up 
a  strong,  well-governed  state,  they  naturally  objected 
to  such  people  being  sent  out  to  live  in  their  country. 
At  the  head  of  the  movement  was  a  man  called  Went- 
worth.  For  some  time  he  worked  in  vain ;  but  at  last 
he  was  successful,  and,  after  1840,  the  British  Govern- 
ment agreed  to  send  no  more  convicts  to  Australia. 

4.  But  Wentworth  had  a  friend  called  Wakefield, 
who  saw  that,  if  the  convicts  were  kept  away,  the 
country  would  come  to  a  standstill  for  want  of  people 
to  do  the  work.  So  he  started  the  idea  of  encouraging 
labourers  and  other  men  who  found  it  difficult  to  make 
a  living  in  England  to  go  and  settle  in  Australia.  For- 
tunately his  plan  succeeded,  and  a  stream  of  emigration 
set  in,  or  the  country  would  never  have  grown  as  it  has. 
The  first  of  Wakefield's  settlers  founded  the  city  of 
Adelaide  in  1834,  which  afterwards  became  the  capital 
of  a  new  colony  called  South  Australia.  Two  years 
later  another  party  landed  at  Melbourne,  almost  the 
most  southerly  point  of  Australia.  This  settlement  at 
first  formed  part  of  New  South  Wales,  but  in  1849  it 
was  made  into  a  separate  colony  and  called  Victoria. 

5.  In  this  way  colonies  were  founded  all  along  the 
south  and  east  coasts  of  Australia.  But  the  northern 
shores  and  the  interior  of  the  continent  were  still  unoccu- 

K 


THE   COLONISATION   OF   AUSTRALIA       147 

pied.  This  was  because  all  the  north  of  Australia  is  in 
the  tropics,  and  much  less  healthy  and  pleasant  to  live  in 
than  the  south ;  and  because  in  the  middle  of  the  country 
there  is  a  great  desert  with  no  rivers  or  springs.  So 
naturally  the  first  emigrants  settled  along  the  southern 
and  south-eastern  coasts,  where  it  was  cool  and  where 
there  was  plenty  of  water  and  rich  pasture  land.  But 
later  on,  as  these  southern  coast  lands  were  taken  up, 
the  newcomers  pushed  farther  afield,  and  they  soon 
found  that  most  of  the  country  along  the  north-eastern 
shores  was  very  rich,  and  that  people  could  quite  well 
live  there  if  they  took  proper  care  to  protect  themselves 
against  fever  and  the  sun.  Before  very  long  enough 
people  had  settled  in  these  parts  to  form  a  new  colony, 
and  in  1859  Queensland,  the  fifth  and  last  of  the  Aus- 
tralian colonies,  was  created. 

6.  Meanwhile  adventurous  men,  not  content  with 
settling  along  the  coast,  had  been  exploring  the  centre 
of  Australia  as  well.  Expedition  after  expedition  set 
out  to  discover  what  it  was  like.  But  they  all  came 
back  exhausted  by  hunger  and  thirst,  saying  that  they 
had  found  nothing  but  miles  and  miles  of  desert. 
There  were  many  sad  stories  of  failure,  and  many  were 
the  brave  explorers  who  lost  their  lives  in  these  hot, 
sandy  deserts  before  the  map  of  Australia  could  be 
properly  drawn.  One  of  the  saddest  stories  is  told  of 
the  party  which  first  set  out  to  cross  the  whole  land 
from  south  to  north.  This  expedition  was  badly  led,  and 
wandered  on  and.  on  until  at  last  its  members  separated. 
Four  of  them  made  a  wild  dash  for  the  north  and 
actually  reached  the  sea ;  but  it  was  a  deserted  shore, 
and  their  stores  were  nearly  used  up,  so  they  had  to 


148     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

turn  back.  Then  they  lost  their  way  and  wandered 
about  the  middle  of  Australia.  After  a  time,  as  none 
of  them  came  home,  search  parties  were  sent  out.  For 
a  long  time  the  rescuers  could  find  no  signs  of  them, 
but  one  day  they  came  upon  a  white  man  with  a  party 
of  natives.  They  asked  him  who  he  was.  "  I  am 
King,"  he  said,  "  the  last  of  the  explorers." 


Robert  O'Hara  Burke  and  William  John  Wills 

Two  of  the  Leaders  of  the  First  Expedition  that  attempted  to  cross 
Australia  from  South  to  North 


7.  When  at  last  all  this  country  was  opened  up, 
part  of  it  was  joined  to  Queensland,  and  part  of  it  was 
handed  over  to  South  Australia.  Since  then  people 
have  found  that  in  much  of  the  desert  there  is  water 
a  little  way  below  the  surface,  which  can  be  reached 
if  wells  are  sunk  far  enough  into  the  ground.  So  a 
great  part  of  the  interior,  which  was  thought  to  be 
a  useless  desert,  has  become  a  thriving  country  and 


THE   COLONISATION   OF   AUSTRALIA       149 

supports  large  flocks  of  sheep.  It  is  quite  possible  that 
before  very  long,  the  old  desert  of  Australia  will  be  one 
of  the  great  farming  countries  of  the  Empire. 

8.  So  we  see  that  by  1860  almost  the  whole  of  the 
vast  continent  had  been  explored,  and  though  only 
populated  along  the  southern  and  eastern  coast  line, 
had  been  divided  up  into  five  great  States.  These  were 
New  South  Wales,  the  original  colony;  Victoria,  the 
southernmost  state ;  South  Australia,  which  ran  right 
across  the  continent  from  north  to  south;  Western 
Australia,  the  largest  state ;  and  Queensland,  the  most 
northerly  of  them  all. 

9.  It  was  not  very  long  before  the  news  of  the 
success  of  responsible  government  in  Canada  began 
to  reach  the  ears  of  the  Australians.  In  Australia, 
as  well  as  in  Canada,  there  had  been  frequent  dis- 
putes between  the  British  Government  and  the  local 
population  about  the  proper  way  of  governing  the 
country,  for  Australia  was  so  far  from  England  that 
in  those  days,  when  letters,  messages,  and  news  had 
to  travel  by  slow  sailing  ships,  the  people  of  one 
country  knew  very  little  about  the  people  of  the  other. 
So  a  demand  soon  grew  up  that  the  system  which  had 
worked  so  well  in  Canada  should  be  given  a  trial  in 
Australia  also.  The  British  Government  agreed,  and 
in  1851  the  four  colonies  which  were  properly  colonised 
at  that  time — New  South  Wales,  Victoria,  South  Aus- 
tralia, and  Tasmania — set  to  work  to  draw  up  constitu- 
tions for  themselves.  These  constitutions  were  shortly 
afterwards  accepted  and  passed  into  law  by  the  Imperial 
Parliament.  Queensland  followed  suit  in  1859,  and 
Western  Australia,  which  grew  much  more  slowly,  in  1890. 


150     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE  FEDERATION  OF   AUSTRALIA 

1.  For  some  time  after  they  were  given  responsible 
government,  the  Australian  States  were  kept  busy 
arranging  their  own  affairs.  Their  great  difficulty  was 
to  find  settlers  to  fill  up  the  country.  The  Chinese 
and  other  people  from  Asia  were  ready  enough  to  come 
in,  but  the  Australians  did  not  want  them  ;  for  they 
felt  that  if  their  land  was  to  be  a  strong  and  important 
part  of  the  Empire,  it  must  be  kept  a  white  man's 
land.  They  knew  that  if  they  let  the  people  of  Asia 
come  and  settle  in  Australia,  it  would  lead  to  endless 
quarrels  between  the  different  races,  and  to  all  kinds  of 
trouble.  So  they  decided  that  only  Europeans  should 
be  allowed  to  settle  among  them.  But  now  the  Aus- 
tralians found  just  the  same  difficulty  that  England 
had  met  with  in  old  days,  when  she  tried  to  plant  her 
first  colonies  in  America ;  for  they  could  not  persuade 
people  to  travel  thousands  of  miles,  to  set  up  their 
homes  in  a  strange  land  where  it  was  sometimes  hard 
to  make  a  living,  unless  there  were  very  good  reasons 
to  induce  them  to  go.  This  want  of  immigrants 
was  all  the  more  serious,  because  the  Australians  knew 
that  if  they  did  not  people  the  country  properly,  sooner 
or  later  some  foreign  power  would  come  and  take  part 
of  it  away  from  them  by  force. 

2.  Fortunately,  about  the  middle   of  the   century 
a  discovery  was  made  that  changed  the  whole  life  of 


The  Commonwealth  of  Austkalia 


152     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

Australia.  An  Australian  who  was  working  in  the 
gold-fields  of  America  noticed  that  the  land  was  very 
like  some  parts  of  his  own  native  country.  This  made 
him  wonder  if  there  was  not  gold  in  Australia  also.  So 
he  journeyed  back  to  New  South  Wales  to  find  out, 
and,  after  some  explorations,  found  that  the  valleys  in 


WOOL-SOKTING 


the  mountains  were  rich  in  gold.  No  sooner  did  this 
news  spread  than  men  poured  in  from  all  sides.  Up 
to  this  time  the  chief  industry  of  the  country  had  been 
sheep  rearing,  and  most  of  the  people  had  been  scat- 
tered about  on  farms,  or  gathered  in  a  few  towns  on  the 
coast.  But  now  the  farmers  left  their  sheep,  the  shop- 
keepers left  their  stores,  the  sailors  even  left  their  ships 


THE   FEDERATION   OF   AUSTRALIA         153 

in  the  ports,  and  joined  in  the  rush  for  gold.  Soon 
afterwards  gold  was  found  in  other  parts  of  Australia 
as  well,  in  Victoria  and  Queensland,  and  later  still  in 
Western  Australia,  and  when  the  news  reached  England, 
thousands  of  men  packed  up  their  goods  and  sailed  off 
in  the  hopes  of  making  a  fortune. 

3.  At  first  this  wild  rush  of  people  made  great  con- 
fusion in  the  quiet  land  of  Australia,  but  by  degrees  the 
miners  settled  down,  and  gold-mining  grew  into  a  steady 
industry  which  supported  large  numbers  of  people. 
But  naturally  this  big  new  population  brought  about 
a  change  in  the  life  of  the  country.  The  newcomers 
wanted  food,  and  clothes,  and  goods  of  all  kinds.  The 
consequence  was  that  the  farmers  found  that  they 
had  a  far  bigger  market  for  their  goods  than  ever 
before,  and  the  shipping  companies  had  to  send  more 
ships  to  Australia  to  carry  all  the  stores  ordered  by 
traders  for  the  new  towns  and  mining  camps.  In  this 
way  the  country  was  opened  out,  and  railways  and 
telegraphs  were  built  all  over  the  land.  Then  enter- 
prising men  began  to  think  of  sending  Australian  goods 
back  in  the  ships  that  had  brought  the  stores  from 
England.  At  first  only  wool  and  grain  were  sent  in 
addition  to  the  minerals,  because  the  long  hot  voyage 
made  the  carriage  of  other  farm  produce  very  diffi- 
cult. But  after  a  time  a  way  was  found  of  preserving 
meat,  butter,  and  other  foods,  by  packing  them  in  iced 
chambers.  This  discovery  was  a  tremendous  help  to 
the  development  of  the  country,  and  the  farming  in- 
dustry grew  by  leaps  and  bounds,  so  that  now  there  are 
more  than  4,250,000  people  in  Australia,  and  they 
export  great   quantities   of  wool,   mutton,  grain,   and 


154     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE    BRITISH    EMPIRE 

dairy  produce  every  year,  as  well  as  gold  and  other 
minerals. 

4.  Before  very  long  the  Australian  States  found 
that  responsible  government  had  not  settled  all  their 
troubles.  For  one  thing  they  were  always  disputing 
amongst  themselves ;  for  another,  there  were  a  great 
many  duties,  like  the  defence  of  their  coasts,  which  were 
being  left  undone  because  there  was  no  one  government 
which  had  power  over  the  whole  country.  So  people 
began  to  look  at  the  example  of  Canada,  and  to  talk  of 
the  need  of  federation.  They  knew  that  up  to  this  time 
they  had  been  safe  from  foreign  enemies,  and  had  been 
able  to  keep  out  the  Asiatics,  because  the  British  Navy 
had  protected  them  ;  but  they  saw  that  some  day  the 
British  Navy  might  be  wanted  in  some  other  part  of  the 
world,  and  then  they  would  have  to  trust  to  them- 
selves alone. 

5.  Just  about  this  time  France  and  Germany  took 
some  of  the  islands  to  the  north  and  east  of  Australia. 
This  made  the  Australians  want  to  prepare  to  defend 
their  shores,  for  they  were  afraid  they  might  be  attacked 
from  these  islands.  But  when  they  tried  to  take  the  first 
steps,  they  found  that,  so  long  as  they  were  divided  into 
five  separate  States  each  jealous  of  the  others,  they 
could  not  agree  upon  what  ought  to  be  done.  So  a 
meeting  was  held  of  members  from  all  the  States,  and 
after  a  great  many  difficulties  and  delays,  a  federal 
constitution  was  drawn  up  which  was  agreed  to  by 
them  all,  and  passed  by  the  British  Parliament  in  1900. 
This  constitution  created  one  Australian  Parliament  to 
manage  everything  that  had  to  do  with  the  outside 
world,  like  defence,  and  customs  duties,  and  immigra- 


THE    FEDERATION   OF   AUSTRALIA        155 

tion,  while  it  left  the  various  States  to  look  after  their 
own  local  affairs.  In  this  way  the  dangers  of  disunion 
were  brought  to  an  end,  and  the  Australians  became 
one  people,  and  the  colony  of  Australia  became  one 
of  the  great  self-governing  Dominions  of  the  Empire. 

6.  Once  the  federation  of  the  different  States  had 
been  completed,  the  Australians  began  to  take  a  great 
interest  in  the  question  of  the  defence  of  the  Empire. 
Even  while  the  Act  of  Federation  was  being  passed, 
they  sent  large  bodies  of  troops  to  help  the  British 
army  in  the  war  in  South  Africa.  Then  they  followed 
the  example  of  Canada  and  tried  to  help  on  British 
trade  by  reducing  the  customs  duties  on  goods  pro- 
duced within  the  Empire.  They  also  hired  a  few  men- 
of-war  to  guard  their  own  shores.  In  1909  they  went 
still  farther  and  ordered  that  all  their  young  men  were 
to  go  through  a  certain  amount  of  military  training, 
so  as  to  be  able  to  defend  their  country  if  danger 
should  arise.  Finally,  in  the  same  year,  Australia  took 
the  lead  by  being  the  first  of  the  Dominions  to  create 
a  large  naval  squadron  of  her  own,  to  help  the  Royal 
Navy  in  its  heavy  task  of  protecting  the  possessions  of 
the  Empire  in  the  Southern  seas. 

7.  So  the  story  of  Australia  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury is  a  story  of  wonderful  progress.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  century  she  was  a  tiny,  helpless  colony ;  to-day 
she  has  become  a  great  modern  State,  owning  the  whole 
of  one  of  the  six  continents  of  the  world.  During  the 
hundred  years  of  her  existence  Australia  has  been  left 
in  peace.  Now  as  with  Canada  and  England,  a  new 
period  in  her  history  has  commenced.  She  has  begun 
to  feel  the  dangers  that  press  upon  her  from  outside 


156     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

owing  to  the  rise  of  the  other  great  powers  of  the 
world,  and  especially  from  the  growth  of  the  Asiatic 
peoples.  And  the  result  we  have  seen  in  the  vigorous 
steps  she  has  taken  to  co-operate  with  the  rest  of  the 
Empire  in  solving  the  common  problem  of  defence. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE  GROWTH  OF   SOUTH  AFRICA 

1.  You  will  remember  that  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
was  almost  the  first  discovery  made  by  the  early  ex- 
plorers. It  was  reached  for  the  first  time  in  1486  by 
Bartholomew  Diaz.  Drake  sailed  past  it  on  his  famous 
voyage  round  the  world,  and  said  that  it  was  "the 
fairest  cape  in  the  whole  circumference  of  the  earth." 
But  for  a  long  time  after  that  nobody  stopped  there. 
In  1620,  however,  two  British  sea  captains  landed  at 
Table  Bay,  and  took  it  in  the  name  of  King  James  I., 
but  the  English  Government  at  that  time  did  not  want 
new  possessions  across  the  sea,  and  the  claim  was  given 
up.  About  thirty  years  later,  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company  decided  to  plant  a  station  on  the  south-eastern 
coast  of  Africa,  as  a  stopping-place  on  the  way  to  the  East, 
and  they  found  Table  Bay  unoccupied.  Their  sailors 
used  to  get  ill  on  their  long-  journeys  for  want  of  vege- 
tables and  fresh  meat,  so  the  company  sent  out  some 
families  and  settled  them  below  Table  Mountain  to 
grow  vegetables  and  buy  cattle  from  the  Hottentots  for 
the  sailors  who  touched  at  the  port. 

2.  For  some  time  the  Dutch  kept  to  the  lands  lying 


THE   GROWTH   OF   SOUTH   AFRICA         157 


JOHAN  VAN  RlEBEEK 

The  Founder  of  the  Dutch  Settlement  at  the  Cape,  and  First  Dutch 
Governor,  1652-1662 


158     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

round  the  great  rock  of  Table  Mountain  and  the  narrow 
neck  which  joins  it  to  the  mainland.  But  as  their 
numbers  grew  they  began  to  want  more  land,  and  about 
1680,  after  the  Hottentots  had  been  defeated,  Simon 
van  der  Stel,  the  first  governor,  colonised  the  rich 
valleys  that  nestle  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  round 
the  great  table-land  of  South  Africa.  So  the  colony  of 
Cape  Town  began  to  grow  from  the  very  beginning,  and 
as  we  shall  see  later  on,  the  whole  history  of  South 
Africa  right  up  to  the  present  day,  turns  upon  this 
gradual  growth.  For  even  when  the  white  settlers  did 
not  need  the  fresh  lands  for  themselves,  they  were  often 
obliged  to  take  possession  of  them  to  save  themselves 
from  being  attacked  and  robbed  by  the  savage  tribes 
which  lived  upon  them.  When  these  native  raids 
took  place  the  only  thing  they  could  do  was  to  march 
out  and  conquer  the  natives,  so  as  to  force  them  to 
be  peaceful  and  well  behaved. 

3.  As  the  white  people  pushed  forward  in  this  way, 
the  Hottentots  and  bushmen  who  lived  in  the  country 
near  Table  Mountain  either  gave  in  to  them  or  drew 
back  to  the  high  table-land  which  forms  all  the  centre 
of  South  Africa.  The  Dutch  farmers  did  not  follow 
them  up  to  the  high  lands,  which  were  dry  and  unfruit- 
ful, but  moved  forward  along  the  rich  country  between 
the  edge  of  the  table-land  and  the  Indian  Ocean.  For 
many  years  they  met  nobody  to  stop  them.  The  land 
was  empty.  But  about  1779  they  came  across  a  new 
race  of  black  men,  the  Kaffirs,  who  were  strong  and 
warlike,  and  would  not  give  way  before  the  white 
settlers.  These  Kaffirs  were  also  looking  for  new  lands. 
A  long  time  ago  they  had  lived  in  Central  Africa,  but 


THE  GROWTH   OF   SOUTH   AFRICA 


159 


as  their  numbers  grew  larger  they  had  moved  south- 
wards to  look  for  new  homes  along  the  east  coast,  just 
as  the  white  men  had  pushed  northward  for  the  same 
reason.  When  the  white  farmers  met  the  Kaffirs,  war 
broke  out — a  war  which  lasted  on  and  off  for  a  hundred 
years.     The  Kaffirs  used  to  raid  and  steal  the  cattle  of 


Photo:  T.  D.  Ravenscroft 


Cape  Town 


the  settlers,  and  the  settlers  used  to  reply  by  driving 
the  Kaffirs  back  and  seizing  some  of  their  land.  There 
were  ten  of  these  Kaffir  wars,  and  the  last  was  fought 
in  1878,  almost  exactly  a  hundred  years  after  the  first. 
In  the  end  the  natives  were  conquered,  and  white 
officials  were  set  over  them  to  govern  them  and  see 
that  they  kept  the  peace. 


160     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

4.  But  long  before  this  South  Africa  had  become 
part  of  the  British  Empire.  You  remember  that  dur- 
ing the  French  Revolution  France  conquered  Holland 
in  order  to  use  her  fleet  against  England,  and  so,  as 
soon  as  the  British  fleet  had  by  its  victories  gained 
command  of  the  sea,  it  tried  to  weaken  the  French  by 
seizing  the  possessions  of  their  allies.  At  first  the  Cape 
was  left  alone,  but  in  1795  a  British  expedition  took 
Cape  Town  and  declared  the  country  a  British  posses- 
sion. In  1802,  however,  it  was  given  back  to  Holland 
by  the  Treaty  of  Amiens ;  but  three  years  later,  when 
war  broke  out  again,  it  was  retaken  by  the  English,  and 
ever  since  it  has  been  a  part  of  the  British  Empire. 

5.  For  many  years  after  this  Cape  Colony  remained 
very  peaceable  and  quiet,  until  in  1836  an  important 
event  took  place.  This  was  the  Great  Trek,  when  a 
number  of  Dutch  farmers,  with  their  families  and  their 
flocks,  crossed  over  the  borders  of  Cape  Colony  into  the 
unknown  country  beyond,  to  set  up  an  independent 
State  of  their  own.  There  were  two  reasons  for  this  trek. 
In  the  first  place,  the  British  Parliament  had  declared 
a  year  before  that  there  was  to  be  no  more  slavery 
anywhere  in  the  Empire.  This  was  a  fine  and  noble 
act ;  but  it  meant  a  great  loss  to  many  people  in  South 
Africa,  for  the  Government  did  not  give  them  enough 
money  to  make  up  for  all  the  slaves  that  were  set  free. 
The  farmers  in  Cape  Colony  were  very  angry  at ,  this, 
because,  in  addition  to  losing  their  slaves,  they  found  it 
difficult  to  obtain  people  to  do  the  work  on  the  farms. 
In  the  second  place,  the  British  Government  gave  back 
to  the  Kaffirs  some  of  the  lands  which  the  settlers  on 
the  frontiers  had  taken  from  them,  because  it  thought 


Early  Dutch  Settlers  at  the  Cape 

(From  a  Drawing  by  Lancelot  Speed) 


THE   GROWTH   OF   SOUTH   AFRICA         161 

the  natives  had  been  unjustly  treated.  This  also 
annoyed  the  white  farmers,  because  it  unsettled  the 
Kaffirs,  and  because  they  themselves  had  to  look  for 
new  lands  to  take  the  place  of  the  farms  they  had  lost. 

6.  So  a  great  band  made  up  their  minds  to  leave 
their  homes  and  to  go  off  in  search  of  new  lands  far 
away  from  the  interference  of  the  Government.  These 
Boer  voor-trekkers,  as  they  were  called,  wandered  about 
exploring  all  the  country  up  to  the  Limpopo  River  in 
the  north  of  the  Transvaal.  On  their  long  journey  they 
suffered  great  hardships,  for  they  were  often  without 
food  or  water,  and  again  and  again  they  were  attacked 
by  native  chiefs.  Their  worst  adventures  were  in 
northern  Natal,  where  they  came  across  the  fierce 
Zulus.  The  Boer  leader,  Piet  Retief,  made  a  treaty  of 
peace  with  Dingaan  the  chief  of  the  great  Zulu  tribe. 
But  Dingaan  was  frightened  of  the  white  men  and 
determined  to  massacre  them.  So  he  treacherously 
pretended  to  be  friendly,  and  then  suddenly  attacked 
and  murdered  the  whole  of  Piet  Retief's  party,  and 
afterwards  killed  some  other  white  people  as  well.  The 
rest  of  the  voor-trekkers  gathered  together,  and  in  the 
winter  of  1838  they  utterly  defeated  Dingaan  at  Blood 
River  and  broke  his  power. 

7.  A  few  years  later  a  quarrel  broke  out  between 
the  Boers  and  the  English  traders  who  had  settled  at 
Durban  in  1824,  and  had  been  trading  with  the  natives 
ever  since.  The  end  of  the  dispute  was  that  Natal  was 
annexed  to  the  British  Crown  in  1844,  and  most  of  the 
Boers  trekked  back  to  the  high  veld  on  the  top  of  the 
table-land,  where  they  founded  the  republics  of  the 
Transvaal  and  the  Orange  Free  State. 

L 


162    THE  GROWTH  OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 
CHAPTER    XXX 

THE    UNION    OF    SOUTH   AFRICA 

1.  For  some  time  after  the  Great  Trek,  and  after 
Natal,  the  Transvaal,  and  the  Orange  Free  State  had 
been  founded,  the  white  men  did  not  push  their 
borders  any  farther  towards  the  centre  of  Africa. 
Both  the  Dutch  and  the  British  were  busy  colonising 
the  land  they  had  taken,  and  keeping  down  the  wild 
tribes  who  lived  amongst  them  or  on  their  borders. 
But  the  Great  Trek  had  sown  the  seed  of  one  very 
great  evil,  for  South  Africa  was  no  longer  under  one 
government.  Two  other  flags  floated  there  besides 
the  Union  Jack,  and,  where  there  are  different  flags, 
troubles  are  almost  sure  to  arise.  Nearly  the  whole 
history  of  South  Africa,  since  1836,  is  taken  up  by 
attempts  to  undo  the  results  of  the  Great  Trek.  First 
of  all,  in  1848,  the  country  which  we  now  call  the 
Orange  Free  State  was  annexed  to  the  British  Crown ; 
but  difficulties  arose  with  the  Basuto  natives,  and  six 
years  later  the  British  Government  gave  it  up.  Then, 
in  1859,  Sir  George  Grey,  whom  you  will  remember 
as  Governor  of  New  Zealand,  tried  to  arrange  a  federa- 
tion of  the  different  South  African  States,  but  in  vain  ; 
and  again  in  1875,  Lord  Carnarvon  made  another 
attempt  to  unite  them,  which  succeeded  no  better 
than  the  first. 

2.  Two  years  later  the  Transvaal   found   itself  in 
trouble  with  the  natives,  and,  as  there  seemed  a  danger 


164     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 


that  it  could  not  stand  alone,  it  was  annexed  to  the 
British  Crown.  One  of  the  conditions  of  the  annexation 
was  that  responsible  government,  which  had  already  been 
given  to  Cape  Colony  in  1872,  should  be  set  up  in  the 

Transvaal  also.  But 
the  British  Gover- 
nor at  that  time  was 
an  unwise  man,  and 
he  kept  delaying  to 
carry  out  the  pro- 
mise. At  last  the 
Boers  grew  angry 
and  took  to  their 
arms,  and  in  1881 
a  battle  was  fought 
at  Majuba.  The 
British  troops  were 
defeated  and  had  to 
surrender,  and  the 
Boers  won  back  their 
independence. 

3.  After  this  war, 
the  quarrel  between 
the  British  in  Cape 
Colony  and  the 
Dutch  in  the  Trans- 
vaal and  the  Orange 
Free  State  became  very  bitter,  and  all  idea  of  federa- 
tion had  to  be  given  up.  Just  about  this  time  gold 
was  discovered  in  the  Transvaal,  and  a  great  rush 
of  people  poured  into  Johannesburg  and  the  other 
mining  districts  from  all  over  the  world.     This  only 


Photo :  Elliott  J;  Fry 

Sir  Bartle  Frere 

{The  Governor  and  High  Commissioner 
sent  to  the  Cape  by  Lord  Carnarvon 
in  1876) 


THE  UNION   OF   SOUTH   AFRICA  165 

added  to  the  difficulty,  for  most  of  the  British  were 
newcomers  and  they  wanted  political  rights,  while  the 
old  Boer  settlers  were  anxious  to  keep  most  of  the 
power  in  their  own  hands.  Gradually  things  drifted 
from  bad  to  worse.  In  1896  Dr.  Jameson  and  his 
followers  made  a  raid  into  the  Transvaal  to  try  and 
upset  the  Boer -Government,  and  from  that  time  people 
began  to  talk  of  fighting  between  the  two  races.  Three 
years  later,  after  a  last  fruitless  meeting  between 
President  Kruger  and  Sir  Alfred  Milner,  war  actually 
broke  out.  You  all  know  the  story  of  the  South 
African  War.  After  three  long  years  of  fighting, 
during  which  both  sides  suffered  terrible  hardships, 
it  ended  in  the  surrender  of  the  Boer  armies. 

4.  But  sad  and  dreadful  as  the  war  was,  it  brought 
one  great  result,  for  the  real  root  of  all  the  trouble 
in  South  Africa  was  the  presence  of  the  two  rival  flags, 
and  now  that  was  done  away  with.  Since  the  war  the 
Union  Jack  has  waved  alone  over  the  whole  land  to 
show  that  it  is  one  country,  and  a  part  of  the  British 
Empire.  The  effect  of  this  was  seen  almost  at  once. 
In  less  than  seven  years  from  the  time  when  they  had 
been  fighting  one  another,  the  Dutch  and  the  English 
met  together  to  see  if  they  could  not  at  last  do  away 
with  the  boundaries  that  divided  South  Africa  into 
separate  states.  The  conference  was  a  great  success, 
and  in  1910  the  four  colonies  of  Cape  Colony,  the 
Transvaal,  Natal,  and  the  Orange  River  Colony  joined 
together  in  the  Union  of  South  Africa.  The  long 
struggle  was  at  an  end,  and  a  veil  was  drawn  over 
the  quarrels  of  the  past. 

5.  But  the  new  Union  did  not  take  in  the  whole 


166     THE  GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

of  British  South  Africa.  One  of  the  bad  results  of 
the  old  state  of  disunion  was  that  there  was  no  govern- 
ment in  South  Africa  whose  business  it  was  to  watch 
over   the  interests   of  the   whole   land.      So  in    1884 


Photo :  W.  &  D.  Downey,  London 

Rt.  Hon.  Cecil  Rhodes 


Germany  had  been  able  to  annex  part  of  South-west 
Africa,  because  neither  the  British  Government  nor 
the  Government  of  Cape  Colony  would  undertake  the 
burden  of  looking  after  it.  After  this  there  was  a  real 
danger  that  all  the  country  to  the  north  of  Cape  Colony 


THE   UNION   OF   SOUTH   AFEICA 


167 


would  fall  into  the  hands  of  some  foreign  power.  But 
Cecil  Rhodes  saw  the  danger,  and  he  saw,  too,  how 
valuable  this  land  might  become,  so  he  determined 
that  it  should  become  part  of  the  British  Empire. 
You  have  probably  heard  how  Cecil  Rhodes  started 
life   as  a  digger  working  in  the  Kimberley  diamond 


Pnuio :  T.  D.  Ravenscroft 

Cecil  Rhodes's  Grave  on  the  Matoppos 
Inscription  on  brass  plate :  M  Here  lie  the  remains  of  Cecil  John  Rhodes" 


fields,  and  how,  by  hard  work  and  perseverance,  he 
made  a  great  fortune  and  in  the  end  became  Prime 
Minister  of  Cape  Colony.  After  Germany  had  seized 
South-west  Africa,  he  managed,  with  the  help  of 
Dr.  Jameson,  to  win  some  rights  from  Lobengula,  King 
of  Matabeleland,  the  country  which  lies  to  the  north. 


168     THE  GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

of  the  Transvaal.  These  rights  enabled  him  to  form 
a  company  to  take  over  the  country.  Gradually  the 
company  grew  and  spread  its  influence,  until  finally 
it  governed  all  the  vast  lands  which  you  see  painted 
red  on  the  map,  to  the  north  of  the  Limpopo  river. 
Cecil  Rhodes  had  done  his  work,  for  his  company  had 
saved  its  possessions  for  South  Africa  and  the  Empire. 
In  1902  he  died  and  was  buried  in  the  Matoppo  Hills, 
in  the  middle  of  the  country  which  is  called  Rhodesia 
in  honour  of  his  name. 

6.  There  is  one  great  difference  we  must  notice 
between  South  Africa  and  the  other  great  self-governing 
dominions  of  the  British  Empire.  South  Africa  has  an 
enormous  native  population.  Besides  about  a  million 
and  a  quarter  of  white  people,  there  are  about  six  millions 
of  black  people.  As  we  have  seen,  in  the  early  days 
the  great  question  was  how  to  subdue  the  fierce  native 
tribes,  so  as  to  prevent  them  from  attacking  the  white 
settlements.  But  now  that  danger  has  almost  passed 
away,  except  in  the  north  of  Rhodesia  and  in  a  few 
other  places,  which  are  kept  apart  for  the  native  tribes 
to  live  in.  But  a  new  difficulty  has  grown  up.  Since 
these  natives  have  come  under  the  British  flag,  the 
South  African  Government  has  to  rule  over  them  and 
protect  them  from  harm.  Most  of  them  are  still 
uncivilised,  and  it  is  difficult  to  know  how  to  treat 
them.  They  are  like  big  children  who  are  always 
mixing  with  the  "  grown-ups  "  and  learning  from  them, 
but  who  are  not  yet  old  enough  to  be  able  to  look 
after  themselves.  Sometimes  they  are  rebellious  and 
dangerous,  sometimes  they  are  quiet  and  well  behaved. 
The  great  puzzle  which  South  Africa  has  to  answer 


THE   UNION   OF   SOUTH   AFRICA  169 

is  how  to  teach  all  these  millions  of  natives  to  become 
good  and  peaceful  citizens. 

7.  Now  that  South  Africa  has  settled  the  quarrels 
between  her  different  states,  and  become  one  country, 
she  will  probably  grow  strong  and   prosperous.     She 


Photo :  T.  D.  Ravenscroft 

Simon's  Town  Bay 
The  headquarters  of  the  British  fleet  in  South  Africa 

is  rich  in  minerals.  The  discovery  of  diamonds  and 
gold  brought  great  numbers  of  white  men  to  her  shores. 
Also,  like  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  she  is  beginning 
to  send  fruit  and  corn  and  other  farming  products 
to  England,  as  well  as  gold  and  precious  stones.  Besides 
this,  South  Africa  is  one  of  the  most  important  naval 
stations  of  the  Empire.     So  a  great  naval  dockyard 


170     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

has  been  built  at  Simon's  Bay,  near  Cape  Town,  where 
the  biggest  battleship  can  gather  coal  and  stores,  and 
be  repaired  if  damaged.  If  war  were  to  break  out  in 
Europe  the  Suez  Canal  would  probably  be  closed,  and 
then  the  only  way  to  the  eastern  parts  of  the  Empire 
would  be  round  the  south  of  Africa.  South  Africa 
knows  what  an  important  post  she  guards,  and,  even 
before  the  Union,  Cape  Colony  and  Natal  used  to  send 
a  sum  of  money  every  year  towards  the  cost  of  the 
British  navy. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

THE  STORY  OF  NEW  ZEALAND 

1.  Let  us  now  turn  to  New  Zealand.  It  is  the  youngest 
of  England's  colonies,  and  its  history  begins  much  later 
than  the  history  of  the  rest  of  the  Empire,  for  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  Union  Jack  had 
not  even  been  planted  on  its  shores.  It  had  first  been 
discovered  long  before ;  Tasman  visited  it  in  1642,  but 
nobody  else  landed  there  for  more  than  a  hundred  years, 
and  its  existence  was  practically  forgotten  until,  in  1769, 
Captain  Cook  discovered  it  again  on  one  of  his  voyages 
in  the  Australian  seas.  After  that  vessels  used  occa- 
sionally to  sail  to  New  Zealand  to  land  a  few  settlers 
and  to  trade  with  the  natives.  But  even  as  late  as  1830 
the  number  of  white  men  there  was  still  very  small. 

2.  New  Zealand  is  made  up  of  two  parts — the  North 
Island  and  the  South  Island,  together  with  a  few  other 
little  islands  close  by.     Together  they  are  about  the 


The  Dominion  of  New  Zealand 


17°                                                                           175 

C.Maria  ^^^ 

35 

van  Diemen  <^? 

35 

P      A     C 

/   F  I    c      vvH 

£ 

tf 

0    c 

E  A  N                     \&\ 
Auckland 

h 

\    \  hBay  of  Plenty  j^. 

North  Island  g 

YVSlV         >-~/        /Cape 

y\  (™W*    j        }  { 

f     [••      l    ^»N.       J   tl          it     f 

Y<>/  <f>/        \J 

New  Plymouth^  gU  ,7^G^J>f 

\l     «  »  °      J  \^  1    Hawke  Bay 

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r 

0 

C.  Fare we II                °0 

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J  Nelson  /  Sv*'      X 

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ull 

C   E   A    N 

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NGLISH    MILES 

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f                SO              100              150 

'i/^Stewart 

Island 

REFERENCE. 

S.  W.  Cape 

7bi»ns  o6oue  25. 000  Inhabt.  Dunedin  o 
Towns  be'ow 25,000  inhabt.      Napier  o 

Longitude  East  170   of  Greenwich                                         175 

Walter  &  Boutall  sc, 

Longmans,  Green  <fc  Co.,  London,  New  York,  Bombay  &  Calcutta 


172     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

same  size  as  the  British  Isles.  The  whole  country  is 
very  mountainous,  and  much  divided  up  by  arms  of 
the  sea,  which  run  far  inland ;  but  it  is  very  beautiful, 
perhaps  the  most  beautiful  of  all  the  dominions  of  the 
Empire. 

3.  Soon  after  1830  people  came  to  know  how  rich 
the  country  was,  and  began  to  settle  in  New  Zealand  in 
larger  numbers.  You  remember  how  Wakefield  had 
helped  to  send  out  settlers  to  Australia,  and  now  he 
helped  to  send  them  to  New  Zealand  too.  The  first 
colonists  made  their  homes  in  the  North  Island ;  but 
about  1839  the  French  made  a  plan  for  seizing  the 
South  Island,  and  making  it  a  French  colony.  As  soon 
as  the  British  Government  heard  of  this  they  sent  an 
expedition  to  take  possession  of  it.  The  expedition 
was  only  just  in  time,  for  a  few  days  after  the  Union 
Jack  had  been  planted  there  a  French  ship  arrived, 
only  to  find  that  it  was  too  late. 

4.  For  the  next  twenty  years  a  steady  stream  of 
people  flowed  out  to  New  Zealand.  As  was  natural,  as 
the  number  of  colonists  grew  they  began  to  claim  to 
be  allowed  to  manage  their  own  affairs,  just  as  the 
Canadians  and  the  Australians  had  done.  The  Gover- 
nor of  New  Zealand,  Sir  George  Grey,  was  a  very  wise 
man,  and  he  persuaded  the  British  Government  to 
agree,  and  in  1853  responsible  government  was  granted, 
and  two  years  later  a  parliament  was  elected  to  manage 
the  affairs  of  the  country. 

5.  At  the  end  of  1853,  however,  Sir  George  Grey  was 
sent  away  to  be  Governor  of  Cape  Colony.  This  was  a 
great  disaster  for  New  Zealand,  for  in  the  North  Island  of 
New  Zealand  there  were  a  large  number  of  brown  people 


THE   STORY   OF   NEW   ZEALAND 


173 


called  Maoris,  who  were  a  very  brave  and  intelligent 
race,  and  over  whom  Sir  George  Grey  had  a  very  good 
influence.     As  soon  as  he  left  trouble  began  to  arise. 


Sie  George  Grey 


The  Maori  tribes  lived  on  large  tracts  of  land,  where 
they  were  governed  by  their  own  chiefs.  But  as  the 
number  of  the  white  people  increased  they  spread 
more  and  more  across  these  native  lands,  until  at 
last   the   Maoris  grew   angry,  and   in   1S59,   although 


174    THE  GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

many  attempts  had  been  made  to  settle  the  question, 
war  broke  out  between  them. 

6.  The  Maoris  were  not  well  armed,  but  they  knew 
their  country,  and  were  very  brave  fighters,  and  the  war 
dragged  on  for  eleven  years.     They  defended  them- 


The  Maoki  King 

selves  in  cleverly  built  camps,  perched  on  rocky  places 
that  were  difficult  to  attack.  In  one  of  these  camps  a 
few  Maoris  and  their  wives  and  children  held  out  for  two 
whole  days,  with  hardly  any  food  or  drink,  against  1300 
men.  The  British  general  admired  their  courage  so 
much  that  at  last  he  promised  to  let  them  all  go  free  if 
they  would  surrender ;  but  they  cried  out :  "  We  will 


THE   STORY   OF   NEW   ZEALAND 


175 


fight  to  the  end,  for  ever,  for  ever,  for  ever."  Then  the 
general  begged  them  to  save  their  wives  and  children  ; 
but  they  only  said,  "  Maori  women  fight  like  Maori 
men,"  and  would  not  give  in.  But  they  could  not  hold 
out  for  ever,  and  at  last  the  camp  was  taken.     In  1870 


A  Maori  Village 


the  war  came  to  an  end,  and  since  that  date  there  has 
been  peace.  The  Maoris  were  given  large  tracts  of  land 
on  which  white  people  are  not  allowed  to  settle,  and  also 
representation  in  the  New  Zealand  Parliament,  to  the 
two  houses  of  which  they  now  (1911)  send  six  members. 
7.  In  1861  gold  was  found  in  New  Zealand,  and 


176     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

this  discovery  brought  as  great  changes  there  as  it 
had  done  in  Australia.  As  the  news  of  the  first  big 
discovery  spread,  there  was  a  rush  of  men  from  all 
over  the  world  to  try  and  make  their  fortunes  by 
digging  for  gold.  All  these  newcomers  wanted  food 
and  clothes,  and  so  the  farmers  found  a  market  for 
their  meat  and  corn  where  before  they  had  none. 
Once  they  had  supplied  all  that  the  miners  and 
townsmen  required,  they  began  to  send  their  pro- 
ducts across  the  seas  to  the  British  Isles.  As  a 
result,  to-day  New  Zealand  exports  a  great  amount 
of  frozen  meat,  and  butter  and  cheese,  as  well  as 
gold,  and  her  white  population  has  grown  to  about 
a  million. 

8.  As  soon  as  New  Zealand  had  become  an  im- 
portant country,  she  began  to  think  about  outside 
affairs  and  about  the  place  she  was  going  to  take  in 
the  world,  just  as  the  other  self-governing  dominions 
had  done.  Her  people  have  a  firm  belief  in  the 
strength  and  greatness  of  the  British  Empire.  They 
know  that  they  are  a  small  and  weak  nation  by 
themselves,  and  that  it  is  the  navy  which  really 
protects  them  from  foreign  enemies.  But  they  are 
very  far  away  from  England,  and  so,  as  long  ago 
as  1884,  they  began  to  arrange  for  their  own  de- 
fence. They  bought  a  small  flotilla  of  ships  to  pro- 
tect their  coasts,  and  helped  to  strengthen  the  Royal 
Navy  by  sending  every  year  to  England  a  gift  of 
money  to  pay  for  part  of  the  cost  of  it.  When  the 
South  African  War  broke  out,  in  1899,  a  burst  of 
patriotism  swept  over  the  whole  country,  and  al- 
though the  population  of  New  Zealand  is  very  small, 


INDIA   IN  THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY     177 

they  sent  ten  bodies  of  soldiers  to  fight  side  by 
side  with  their  British  and  Canadian  and  Australian 
brothers.  Again,  in  1909,  when  England's  sea-power 
seemed  to  be  in  danger  from  Germany's  great  fleet, 
New  Zealand  was  the  first  to  come  to  the  help  of 
the  Mother-country,  and  offered  to  give  one  or,  if 
necessary,  two  Dreadnought  battleships  to  strengthen 
the  Navy.  Afterwards  it  was  arranged  that  New 
Zealand  should  buy  a  Dreadnought  cruiser,  to  be  the 
flagship  of  the  squadron  of  the  Koyal  Navy  which 
was  to  sail  in  New  Zealand  waters  and  guard  her 
trade  and  coasts.  As  the  result  of  her  patriotism, 
and  because  of  her  growing  importance,  New  Zealand,, 
which  had  previously  been  a  colony,  was  raised  to  be 
one  of  the  dominions  of  the  Empire. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

INDIA   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY 

u  Not  once  or  twice  in  our  fair  island  story, 
The  path  to  duty  was  the  way  to  glory : 
He,  that  ever  following  her  commands, 
On  with  toil  of  heart  and  knees  and  hands, 
Thro'  the  long  gorge  to  the  far  light  has  won 
His  path  upward,  and  prevail'd, 
Shall  find  the  toppling  crags  of  duty  scaled 
Are  close  upon  the  shining  tablelands 
To  which  our  God  Himself  is  moon  and  sun." 

— Tennyson. 

1.  You    remember    how    the    English    first    went    to 
India,  because  of  its  trade,  and  how  the  British  East 

M 


INDIA   IN   THE  NINETEENTH   CENTURY     179 

India  Company  was  drawn  into  war,  first  with  the 
French,  and  then,  after  the  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta, 
with  the  native  princes.  Once  the  Company  began 
to  interfere  with  native  affairs  it  found  that  it  could 
not  stop.  After  Clive  had  defeated  Surajah  Dowlah 
at  the  battle  of  Plassey,  he  kept  some  of  the  land 
round  Calcutta,  and  made  one  of  Surajah  Dowlah's 
officers  vizier  over  the  rest  of  Bengal,  to  act  as  a  buffer 
between  the  English  and  the  other  native  princes.  A 
few  years  later  this  vizier  attacked  the  English  himself, 
and  tried  to  drive  them  away ;  but  Clive  won  another 
victory,  and  after  that  the  Company  took  charge  of  the 
government  of  the  whole  of  Bengal,  so  as  to  make  sure 
that  Calcutta  should  not  be  attacked  in  the  same 
way  again. 

2.  Soon  afterwards  the  famous  "Warren  Hastings 
became  Governor.  Warren  Hastings  found  that  the 
borders  of  Bengal  were  always  being  raided  by  a  fierce 
people  called  the  Mahrattas,  who  lived  in  the  middle  of 
India  and  robbed  and  plundered  their  neighbours.  So 
he  followed  Clive's  example  and  set  up  a  number  of 
native  states,  to  act  as  buffers  round  the  British  pos- 
sessions. But  this  plan  soon  broke  down.  Either  the 
native  princes  attacked  the  British  possessions,  or  else 
their  states  became  so  lawless  that  the  British  Govern- 
ment had  to  annex  them  to  prevent  the  trouble  from 
spreading  across  their  own  borders.  So  we  find  that, 
from  the  time  of  Clive,  the  British  dominion  in  India 
went  on  growing  and  growing,  until  at  last  it  covered 
the  whole  country.  The  last  steps  were  taken  in  1864 
and  1885,  when  British  Baluchistan  on  the  west,  and 
the  lower  half  of  Burmah  on  the  east,  were  annexed,  so 


180     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

that  the  whole  country  is  now  walled  round  by  a 
strong  natural  frontier  of  desert,  or  mountain,  or 
sea. 

3.  For  many  years  after  the  French  had  been  driven 
out  of  India,  the  British  Government  thought  no  more 
of  the  danger  of  being  attacked  by  a  foreign  enemy. 
They  were  busy  settling  the  affairs  of  India  itself,  and 
they  trusted  to  the  Navy  to  protect  them.  For  India 
is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Himalayas,  which  are  the 
highest  mountains  in  the  world,  and  no  one  imagined 
that  it  could  be  attacked  that  way.  But  there  is  one 
road  across  those  wild  mountains  through  the  passes 
of  Afghanistan,  and,  in  1837,  it  was  rumoured  that 
the  Russians  were  thinking  of  invading  India  by  that 
road.  This  news  caused  great  dismay,  and  the  danger 
became  serious  when  the  Amir,  the  ruler  of  Afghanistan, 
was  said  to  be  making  friends  with  the  Russians.  So 
a  British  army  was  sent  to  take  Kabul,  the  capital  of 
his  country.  Two  years  later  the  Afghans  suddenly 
rose  up,  and  the  British  had  to  retreat  as  quickly  as 
they  could,  without  arms,  and  in  the  middle  of  the 
winter,  back  over  the  snowy  mountains  to  India.  Only 
one  man  got  through.  The  rest  were  killed  or  captured. 
The  next  year  another  army  was  sent  to  rescue  the 
prisoners  and  to  punish  the  Afghans.  Then  there  was 
peace  for  a  time,  but  in  1880  there  was  more  fighting 
in  Afghanistan,  and  Kabul  was  taken  once  more 
because  again  a  Russian  invasion  was  feared.  It  was 
during  this  war  that  Lord  Roberts  made  his  famous 
march  of  over  300  miles  in  thirty  days  through  the 
enemy's  country  from  Kabul  to  Kandahar,  where  he 
defeated  the  Afghans.     At  last,  in  1907.  an  agreement 


INDIA   IN   THE   NINETEENTH    CENTURY     181 

was  made  between  Russia  and  England,  and  Afghanistan 
was  made  a  buffer  state  between  them. 

4.  Inside  India  the  British  have  only  once  been  in 
real  danger,  and  that  was  in  the  year  1857.  For  some 
time  there  had  been  a  growing  restlessness  in  the 
northern  parts  of  the  country,  round  Delhi  and  Luck- 
now.  The  native  princes  were  jealous  of  the  power  of 
England,  and  the  people  thought  that  the  British  were 
going  to  interfere  with  their  religion.  This  discontent 
soon  spread  to  the  Sepoys,  as  the  native  soldiers  in  the 
Indian  army  were  called.  There  were  only  50,000 
British  troops  in  the  whole  country,  while  the  Sepoys 
numbered  over  250,000.  When  the  Sepoys  realised 
their  strength,  a  great  number  of  them  rose  suddenly 
without  warning.  They  murdered  their  officers  and  a 
great  many  women  and  children,  and  then  marched  off 
to  Delhi  and  set  up  a  feeble  old  man,  who  was  descended 
from  their  Mogul  Emperors,  as  Lord  of  India.  The 
story  is  too  long  to  tell  here.  But  if  you  want  to  know 
how  women  and  children  were  killed  in  cold  blood  at 
Cawnpore;  how  first  Sir  Henry  Havelock,  and  then 
Sir  Colin  Campbell  and  his  Highlanders,  rescued  the 
heroic  defenders  of  Lucknow;  how  8000  British  be- 
sieged 30,000  Indian  troops  in  Delhi  all  through  the 
long,  hot  summer  months,  and  how  at  last  they  took 
the  city,  you  must  read  the  story  in  another  book. 
In  the  end  the  Mutiny  was  put  down,  and  the  British 
Dominion  was  set  up  more  strongly  than  before. 

5.  Now  we  must  learn  something  about  how  India 
is  governed.  When  the  East  India  Company  had 
taken  charge  of  nearly  the  whole  of  India,  and  had 
millions  of  Indians  for  its  subjects,  the  British  Govern- 


182     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

ment  felt  bound  to  watch  over  these  new  parts  of  the 
Empire  to  see  that  they  were  properly  governed.  It 
saw  that  a  private  company  could  not  be  allowed  to 
go  on  managing  the  affairs  of  such  a  great  country  by 
itself.  So  bit  by  bit  it  took  away  the  control  of  India 
from  the  East  India  Company,  until,  after  the  Mutiny 
in  1857,  the  powers  of  the  Company  were  abolished 
altogether  and  in  1876  Queen  Victoria  was  declared 
Empress  of  India. 

6.  It  was  Warren  Hastings  who  first  began  to 
govern  India  properly.  At  that  time  many  of  the 
princes  of  India  were  cruel  tyrants.  The  people  were 
ground  down  by  heavy  taxes  and  could  hardly  ever 
obtain  justice,  and  famines  and  droughts  scourged  the 
land.  The  country  was  divided  up  into  hundreds  of 
states  and  parties,  which  were  always  fighting  among 
themselves,  and  robbers  and  murderers  roamed  about 
as  they  chose.  Warren  Hastings  saw  that  the  only 
way  of  bringing  peace  to  this  unhappy  land  would  be 
to  put  a  British  official  at  the  head  of  each  district  to 
keep  order  and  give  justice  to  the  people.  So  this  was 
done,  and  his  system  has  been  kept  up  ever  since. 
About  two-thirds  of  India  is  governed  in  this  way. 
The  rest  is  in  the  hands  of  native  princes,  who  are 
allowed  to  manage  their  own  possessions  as  long  as 
they  rule  them  properly,  though  of  course  they  are 
all  subjects  of  the  king. 

7.  Even  now  the  only  thing  that  keeps  India 
together,  and  upholds  law  and  justice  and  peace  within 
it,  is  the  British  rule.  India  is  still  divided  into  a 
huge  number  of  tribes  and  peoples  and  religions;  in 
the  part  that  belongs  to  the  native  princes  alone  there 


INDIA   IN   THE   NINETEENTH   CENTURY     183 

are  no  fewer  than  600  different  states.  If  the  British 
were  to  disappear,  terrible  results  would  follow.  The 
people  would  begin  to  fight  among  themselves  once 
more  ;  the  famines  and  diseases  which  the  white 
men  keep  down  would  rage  through  the  country  as 
they  did  of  old  ;  tyranny  would  reappear  ;  the  poor  and 
the  weak  would  have  no  one  to  save  them  from  the 
rich  and  strong.  The  network  of  railways  and  tele- 
graphs, many  of  the  great  canals  which  water  the 
fields  and  support  millions  of  the  people,  and  the  whole 
great  business  system  which  supplies  the  wants  of  the 
country,  all  these  things  would  stop  working  if  the 
British  Empire  were  to  break  up  and  the  white  men 
were  to  go  away. 

8.  So  we  can  see  that  the  government  of  India  is 
a  tremendous  responsibility  which  rests  on  the  Empire, 
for  the  lives  and  happiness  of  more  than  300  millions 
of  people  depend  upon  the  British  continuing  to  govern 
it.  But  if  India  is  a  great  responsibility  it  is  a  great 
source  of  strength  as  well.  Already  the  Indian  trade 
is  one-tenth  of  all  the  trade  of  the  Empire.  Every 
country  needs  many  products,  which  can  only  be 
grown  in  the  Tropics.  India  exports  to-day  huge 
quantities  of  cotton,  jute,  tea,  spices,  and  foodstuffs, 
and  as  she  is  rapidly  forging  ahead,  she  may  in  future 
grow  enough  of  some  of  these  things  to  supply  the 
needs  of  the  whole  of  the  Empire. 


184     THE   GROWTH   OF    THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

CHAPTEE   XXXIII 

OTHER  BRITISH  POSSESSIONS 

1.  We  have  now  learnt  about  the  most  important 
parts  of  the  Empire — the  British  Isles,  Canada,  New- 
foundland, Australia,  South  Africa,  New  Zealand.,  and 
India.  As  you  have  seen  on  the  map,  there  are  a 
great  many  other  British  possessions  all  over  the 
world,  so  many  that  there  is  not  room  to  tell  you 
the  history  of  them  all.  In  this  chapter,  therefore, 
we  only  explain  how  they  came  to  be  parts  of  the 
Empire,  and  what  they  are  like  to-day. 

Egypt 

2.  First  of  all  there  is  Egypt  and  the  Sudan.  Egypt  is 
not  really  part  of  the  Empire,  although  it  is  ruled  by 
the  British.  A  little  more  than  thirty  years  ago  it  was 
governed  by  the  Khedive  Ismail,  who  was  subject  to 
the  Sultan  of  Turkey.  This  Khedive  borrowed  a  great 
deal  of  money  from  the  English  and  the  French,  but 
he  managed  his  affairs  so  badly  that  in  1876  the 
English  and  French  Governments  had  to  step  in  to 
save  their  own  citizens  from  losing  the  money  they 
had  lent  Ismail.  Several  attempts  were  made  to  put 
matters  right,  but  in  vain.  At  last,  in  1882,  there  was 
a  riot  in  Alexandria,  in  which  many  Europeans  were 
killed,  and  it  became  necessary  to  do  something  drastic 
to  restore  order  to  the  country.  So,  as  France  at  that 
time  was  anxious  not  to  mix  in  foreign  affairs,  England 


OTHER   BRITISH   POSSESSIONS 


185 


was  left  to  settle  the  question  alone.  Alexandria  was 
attacked,  and  Arabi,  the  leader  of  the  rebellious. 
Egyptians,  was  defeated  at  Tel-el- Kebir,  and  then  the 
British  troops  took  Cairo. 


The  Suez  Canal 

This  Canal  was  cut  through  the  narrow  isthmus  that  joins  Asia  to- 
Africa,  to  enable  ships  to  sail  along  the  Mediterranean  into  the 
Red  Sea,  and  then  to  India.  Before  this,  they  were  obliged  to  go 
all  the  way  round  the  coast  of  Africa  in  order  to  get  to  India  and 
the  East.  De  Lesseps  was  the  name  of  the  great  French  engineer 
who  saw  the  advantage  of  the  Canal,  and  constructed  it. 


3.  Ever  since  that  time  it  is  the  British  who  have 
really  governed  Egypt.  But  they  have  always  done  so 
in  the  name  of  the  Khedive,  and  through  his  Egyptian 
ministers,  for  the  Khedive  is  still  on  his  throne.  As 
soon  as  the  British  arrived,  they  set  to  work  to  bring  in 


186     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 


a,  good  system  of  government,  and 


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to  improve  the  state 
of  the  country.  Be- 
fore this  the  people 
were  ground  down 
by  cruel  taxes,  and 
scourged  when  they 
were  too  poor  to  pay 
them.  There  were 
no  railways  or  mar- 
kets, and  slavery 
existed  in  many 
places.  Nowadays 
the  taxes  are  far 
lighter,  and  slavery 
and  scourging1  have 
been  done  away  with ; 
canals  have  been  cut, 
and  thousands  of 
square  miles  have 
been  changed  from 
dry  desert  into  fertile 
fields,  and  railways 
and  telegraphs  cover 
the  land.  Egypt  has 
become  a  rich  coun- 
try, and  exports 
much  cotton  and 
corn.  She  is  no 
longer  weighed  down 
her 


by    debt,    and 
people  are  prosperous  as  they  never  were  before. 


OTHER   BRITISH   POSSESSIONS  187 


The  Sudan 

4.  The  part  which  England  took  in  the  affairs  of 
Egypt  led  her  into  war  in  the  Sudan,  the  great  stretch 
of  land  which  lies  to  the  south.  In  1879,  General 
Gordon  went  to  carry  out  an  order  of  the  Khedive  to 
put  an  end  to  slavery  in  the  Sudan.  This  made  the 
Arab  slave-dealers  very  angry,  and,  after  Gordon  had  left 
the  country,  a  leader  called  the  Mahdi  gathered  together 
a  wild  army  of  Dervishes  and  became  tyrant  of  the 
Sudan.  The  Dervishes  used  to  wander  about,  murdering 
the  people  and  behaving  with  the  most  horrible  cruelty. 
At  last  they  became  so  strong  that  they  surrounded 
General  Gordon,  who  had  gone  out  again  to  take  charge 
of  the  troops  and  to  try  to  restore  order,  and  shut  him 
up  in  Khartoum.  For  a  long  time  he  held  out  against 
them,  but  before  help  could  reach  him,  Khartoum  was 
taken  by  the  Mahdi  in  1885,  and  all  its  brave  defenders 
killed. 

5.  For  some  time  after  this  the  Sudan  was  left  alone. 
But  in  1895  the  Mahdi's  successor,  the  Khalifa,  began 
to  make  preparations  for  the  invasion  of  Egypt,  so  an 
army  was  sent  into  the  Sudan,  under  Lord  Kitchener, 
to  break  his  power.  A  great  victory  was  won  at 
Omdurman,  the  Khalifa  overthrown,  and  the  Sudan 
was  finally  brought  under  Egyptian  and  British  rule 
(1898).  The  terror  of  the  Dervishes  has  now  dis- 
appeared, and,  like  Egypt,  the  country  is  growing  rich 
and  prosperous  under  the  protection  of  both  the  British 
and  Egyptian  flags. 


188     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

East  and  West  Africa 

6.  The  Empire  has  many  other  possessions  in  Africa. 
On  the  east  there  is  British  East  Africa  and  Uganda, 
which  runs  from  the  Sudan  on  the  North  to  the  Indian 
Ocean  near  Zanzibar.  On  the  west  are  North  and 
South  Nigeria,  the  Gold  Coast,  Sierra  Leone,  and 
Gambia.  All  these  are  in  the  Tropics,  and  in  time  they 
will  be  very  rich  and  valuable  parts  of  the  Empire. 
The  first  thing  that  the  British  had  to  do  when  they 
came  into  possession  of  these  lands  was  to  root  out  all 
the  horrors  of  the  savage  days — like  torture,  and  canni- 
balism, and  the  slave-trade.  That  done,  they  began  to 
train  the  people  and  to  civilise  them,  and  to  build 
railways,  and  improve  the  whole  state  of  the  country. 
This  great  work  is  steadily  being  carried  out  to-day. 
The  people  are  becoming  peaceful  and  contented.  A 
proper  system  of  government  is  being  set  up,  and  the 
trade  of  these  countries  in  rubber,  gold,  tin,  copper, 
and  similar  things,  is  growing  by  leaps  and  bounds. 

The  West  Indies 

7.  You  remember  how  the  West  Indian  Islands  were 
some  of  the  first  of  the  British  conquests.  The  most 
important  of  them  are  Jamaica,  Trinidad,  Barbados, 
the  Bahamas,  the  Windward  Islands,  and  the  Leeward 
Islands.  Close  by  them  is  British  Guiana  on  the  north 
of  South  America,  and  British  Honduras  in  Central 
America,  not  far  from  the  Panama  Canal.  All  these 
places  grow  quantities  of  rubber,  mahogany,  sugar,  and 
tobacco. 


190     THE   GROWTH   OF  THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 


The  East  Indies 

8.  The  chief  British  possessions  in  the  Far  East  are 
Ceylon  at  the  foot  of  India,  the  Straits  Settlements, 
part  of  the  island  of  Borneo,  Hong  Kong  in  China,  and 
a  great  many  little  islands  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  These 
places  are  mostly  valuable  because  of  the  minerals  and 
the  rubber  and  woods  which  they  export.  Hong 
Kong  is  an  important  naval  station. 

Naval  Stations 

9.  You  understand  now  how  the  Empire  stretches 
all  over  the  world.  The  only  thing  that  binds  it  all 
together  is  the  sea,  and  unless  the  British  fleet  is  strong 
enough  to  prevent  it,  any  of  its  parts  may  be  cut  oft" 
and  attacked  by  some  enemy.  But  a  fleet,  when  it  is 
on  a  long  journey,  must  be  able  to  pick  up  stores  and 
water  for  its  crew,  and  coal  and  ammunition  for  its 
engines  and  guns,  for  not  even  the  largest  battleship 
can  steam  ahead  for  ever.  So  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant parts  of  the  Empire  are  the  naval  and  coaling 
stations,  which  are  the  stopping-places  between  its 
different  ports.  There  is  a  map  to  show  you  which 
these  are. 


Important  Dates  in  the  Fourth  Period  (1815-1900) 

1826.  First  settlement  in  Western  Australia. 
1830.  New  Zealand  colonised. 

1832.  Reform  Bill  passed. 

1833.  Slavery  abolished  throughout  the  British  dominions. 

1834.  First  settlement  in  Southern  Australia. 


OTHER   BRITISH   POSSESSIONS  191 

1836.  Great  Trek  in  South  Africa. 

1838.  Zulus  defeated  in  Natal  (South  Africa). 

1839-41.  First  Afghan  War  in  India. 

1840.  Responsible  government  granted  to  Canada. 

1840.  Transportation  of  convicts  to  Australia  abolished. 

1841.  Hong  Kong  ceded  to  Great  Britain. 
1844.  Annexation  of  Natal. 

1845-6.  First  Sikh  War  in  India. 
1849.  Second  Sikh  War — Punjab  annexed. 
1849.  Colony  of  Victoria  created  in  Australia. 
1849.  Navigation  laws  repealed. 
1851.  Gold  discovered  in  Australia. 

1851.  Responsible   government    granted    to    New    South   Wales, 
Victoria,  South  Australia,  and  Tasmania. 

1856.  Annexation  of  Oude  in  India. 

1857.  Indian  Mutiny — End  of  East  India  Company. 

1859.  Sir  George  Grey  tries  to  federate  South  African  States. 

1859.  Responsible  government  granted  to  New  Zealand. 

1859.  Responsible  government  granted  to  Queensland. 

1859-70.  Maori  wars  in  New  Zealand. 

1861.  American  Civil  War. 

1861.  Gold  discovered  in  New  Zealand. 

1864.  British  Baluchistan  annexed  in  India. 

1867.  British  North  America  Act — Dominion  of  Canada  created, 

consisting  of  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  and  New  Brunswick. 
1872.  Responsible  government  granted  to  Cape  Colony. 

1875.  Lord  Carnarvon  tries  to  federate  South  African  States. 

1876.  Queen  Victoria  becomes  Empress  of  India. 
1878.  Last  Kaffir  War  in  South  Africa. 

1878.  Transvaal  annexed. 

1879-80.  Second  Afghan  War  in  India. 

1881.  Boers  win   the  battle  of  Majuba— Transvaal  regains  its 

independence. 

1882.  Egyptians  defeated  at  Tel-el-Kebir. 

1885.  Nile  Expedition  —  Fall  of  Khartoum  —  Death  of  General 

Gordon. 
1885.  Transcontinental  railway  in  Canada  completed. 

1885.  Lower  Burmah  annexed. 

1886.  Straits  Settlements  annexed. 

1886.  Witwatersrand  goldnelds  discovered  in  the  Transvaal. 


192     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

1888.  British     South    Africa     Company     founded     to     colonise 

Rhodesia. 
1890.  Responsible  government  granted  to  West  Australia. 
1896.  Jameson  raid  into  the  Transvaal. 
1898.  Battle  of  Omdurman — Conquest  of  the  Sudan. 
1899-1902.  South  African  War. 
1900.  Creation  of  Australian  Commonwealth. 
1907.  New  Zealand  made  a  Dominion  of  the  Empire. 
1909.  Australia  undertakes  to  build  a  naval  squadron. 

1909.  New  Zealand  oners  a  Dreadnought  to  the  British  Govern- 

ment. 

1910.  Union  of  South  Africa. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

THE  BRITISH  EMPIRE  OF   TO-DAY 

1.  Let  us  turn  to  the  map  and  have  one  more  glance  at 
the  Empire  as  it  is  to-day.  We  have  seen  what  it  is 
and  learnt  the  history  of  its  different  parts ;  now  let  us 
look  at  it  once  more  as  a  whole.  You  remember  in  the 
beginning  we  said  that  the  Empire  was  like  a  family 
consisting  of  one  Mother-country,  a  number  of  grown- 
up daughter  nations,  and  a  lot  of  peoples  not  old  enough 
to  govern  themselves.  The  different  members  of  the 
family  are  all  joined  together  by  the  common  necessity 
of  protecting  themselves  against  the  outside  world,  by 
their  common  institutions  of  government,  and  by  their 
loyalty  to  one  king  and  one  flag.  This  family  of  states 
covers  about  one-fifth  of  the  land  of  the  world,  and 
altogether  it  is  ninety-one  times  as  big  as  its  little 
Mother-country.     Here  is  a  plan  to  show  you  the  size 


THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE   OF   TO-DAY        193 

of  the  different  parts  of  the  Empire  compared  with  one 
another : — 


Size  of  different  Countries  of  British  Empire 


CANADA 

AND 

NEWFOUNDLAND 


Australia 


South 
Africa 


new 


India, 

Ceylon 

and 
East  Indies 


Egvpt 

AND 
SUD/»N 


III 


British 
wtsr  ■ 
Africa 


WHOLE  SIZE   OF    BRITISH  EMPIRE    I  1.468, OOO,  SQUARE  MILES. 

2.  Now  we  know  that  all  these  different  countries 
have  not  the  same  kind  of  people  in  them.  Some  are 
much  more  closely  populated  than  others;  and  some 
are  inhabited  entirely  by  white  men,  like  England  and 
Canada ;  some,  like  India  and  the  dependencies,  by  the 
coloured  races;  while  others,  like  South  Africa  and 
New  Zealand,  are  peopled  by  both  white  and  coloured 
races.  In  the  next  plan  you  will  see  how  the  population 
of  the  Empire  is  divided  between,  the  different  countries. 
If  you  compare  it  with  the  first  plan,  you  will  see  that 
though  the  British  Isles  are  so  small  in  size,  they  contain 
more  people  than  any  other  part  of  the  Empire  except 
India.  You  will  also  see  what  a  very  great  number  of 
the  subjects  of  the  Empire  belong  to  the  coloured  races. 

3.  How  are  all  these  millions  of  people  employed  ? 
You  remember  what  you  learnt  about  the  Industrial 
Revolution  which  took  place  in  England  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  how  the  United 
Kingdom  became  the  greatest  manufacturing  country 
in  the  world.  It  was  because  of  this  that  its  population 
grew  so  quickly,  and  at  the  present  day  about  one-fifth 
of  the  people   (9  out  of  45  millions)  are  engaged  in 

N 


194     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

manufactures,  chiefly  cotton,  woollen,  steel,  and  iron 
goods.  But  Britain  cannot  provide  the  cotton,  and 
wool,  and  other  raw  materials  for  her  manufactures, 
nor  can  she  grow  food  enough  for  all  her  people,  so  she 
has  to  send  out  ships  to  all  parts  of  the  world  in  search 

Populations  of  different  Countries  of  British  Empire 


Population  of  the  British 

| I  White  people 

Coloured  people 


Empire    404,  6QO.O 
(    60,000,0000 
(344,000,000.) 


OO. 


British  Isles  . 

45,500,000 

Egypt  and 

Canada     and 

Sudan    .     . 

11,000,000 

Newfound- 

West Africa  . 

18,000,000 

land  .     .     . 

7,500,000 

West  Indies  . 

2,000,000 

South  Africa 

7,000,000 

India,  Ceylon, 

Australia  .     . 

4,400,000 

East  Indies 

300,000,000 

New  Zealand 

1,000,000 

East  Africa   . 

7,GOO,000 

404,600,000 

of  what  she  needs ;  and  about  a  quarter  of  all  her  trade 
is  with  the  other  parts  of  the  Empire.  She  gets  wood 
and  wheat  from  the  wide  forests  and  fields  of  Canada; 
meat,  wool,  and  minerals  from  the  sheep  farms  and 
mines  of  Australia,  South  Africa,  and  New  Zealand ; 
and  cotton,  tea,  and  spices  from  India  and  the  depen- 
dencies.    And  in  return  for  these  articles  the  other 


THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE    OF   TO-DAY        197 

on  the  east  coast  of  Canada.  The  second  great  road 
runs  across  the  Mediterranean  to  Egypt,  and  on 
through  the  Suez  Canal  to  India,  Australia,  and  the 
Far  East.  Here  we  have  the  mighty  fort  of  Gibraltar, 
which  guards  the  gateway  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  Malta, 
close  to  Sicily;  and  Aden,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Red 
Sea.  The  third  road  also  leads  to  the  Far  East ;  it  is 
the  way  which  was  discovered  by  the  Portuguese  round 
the  south  of  Africa.  Gibraltar  is  the  first  naval  station 
on  this  road  too ;  after  that  comes  Sierra  Leone, 
Ascension,  and  then  St.  Helena,  where  Napoleon  was 
sent  a  prisoner  after  the  Battle  of  Waterloo.  Beyond 
St.  Helena  we  come  to  the  great  naval  dock  at  Simons 
Town  in  Cape  Colony.  From  there  the  road  divides. 
Either  we  can  go  straight  across  to  Australia  and  New 
Zealand,  or  we  can  sail  north  to  Mauritius  and  the 
Seychelle  Islands,  and  so  reach  the  big  naval  station 
at  Colombo  in  Ceylon,  when  we  join  the  second  road 
from  Aden  once  more.  From  Ceylon  we  can  sail  to 
the  other  big  stations  in  the  Far  East,  Singapore  in  the 
Straits  Settlements,  and  so  on  to  Hong  Kong  in  China. 
The  last  great  sea-road  runs  from  Esquimault,  on  the 
Pacific  coast  of  Canada,  to  Australia  and  New  Zealand. 
It  has  only  begun  to  be  important  since  these  Dominions 
have  grown  rich  and  powerful.  There  are  a  great 
many  islands  along  this  road,  the  most  important  of 
them  being  the  Fiji  Islands. 

5.  In  addition  to  the  great  sea-roads  there  are  other 
links  between  the  different  parts  of  the  Empire.  These 
are  the  telegraph  lines  laid  under  the  sea.  The  sub- 
marine cables,  as  they  are  called,  flash  the  news  all 
round  the  world,  so  that  every  morning  people  know 
what  happened  at  the  other  side  of  the  earth  the  day 

N  2 


198     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE    BRITISH    EMPIRE 

before.     Most  of  these  cables  belong  to  the  British,  and 
on  the  map  you  will  see  the  chief  British  cables  encirc- 

A  Comparison  of  the  Five  Great  Powers 


British  Empire 

1 1. 468,  O 00, 

SQUARE   MILES 


Russian  Empire 
8,650,  OOO, 
SQUARE  MILES. 


French  Empire 
5,ooo,ooo. 
Square  miles. 


AMERICAN 

EMPIRE 
3,600,000. 
SQUARE  MILES 


GERMAN 
EMPIRE 
U4O.0O0 

SCALES. 


I.  Area  of  the  Territory  of  each  of  the  Five  Great  Powers 


British  Empire 

404,600.000. 

Russian  empire 

156,000,000. 

French  Empire 

92000,000. 

AMERICAN 

EMPIRE 
100,000,000. 

German 
empire 

76,000,000 

II.  Population  (white  and  coloured)  of  each  of  the  Five  Great  Powers 


RUSSIAN 

EMPIRE 

140,000,000, 

AMERICAN 

Empire 
90,000,000 

BRITISH 

EMPIRE 

60.000,000. 

German 
Empire 

65,000,000 

French 
Empire 

40,000,000 

III.  Population  (white  only)  of  each  of  the  Five  Great  Powers 

ling  the  globe.1  Besides  this,  as  you  know,  messages 
can  now  be  sent  by  wireless  telegraphy,  so  that  ships  on 
their  long  voyages,  even,  though  they  may  be  hundreds 

1  Chap.  XXXIII. 


THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE   OF   TO-DAY 


199 


of  miles  from  land,  can  receive  messages  and  print 
newspapers  every  day  for  the  passengers  on  board.  All 
these  new  and  wonderful  discoveries  seem  to  swallow 
up  the  miles  of  ocean,  and  to  bind  the  Empire  together 
in  a  way  which  could  never  have  been  possible  before. 

6.  It  is  not  possible  to  defend  a  great  Empire  and 
its  trade  without  a  large  army  and  navy,  and  we  have 

Cost  of  Defence,  1909-1910 


Millions  of  £ 

Is      |a 

o             lo             lo 

OS                     I--*                     JO 

¥     1 

United  Kingdom 

£63,266,800.     Population  45£  millions. 

United  States .     . 

£63,000,000.     Population  90  millions. 

Germany     .     .     . 

£60,379,000.     Population  66  millions, 

Russia     .... 

£58,868,000.    Population  156  millions. 

France    .... 

£45,353,000.     Pop.  40  mills. 

seen  how  specially  important  the  supremacy  of  her 
fleet  is  to  the  British  Empire.  Great  Britain,  there- 
fore, maintains  a  powerful  navy  and  army,  and  the 
Dominions  are  beginning  to  do  the  same.  But  the 
other  great  powers  of  the  world  also  keep  armies  and 
navies,  which  stand  over  against  those  of  the  Empire. 
These  powers,  which  are  shown  on  the  map  facing 
p.  145,  are  four  in  number — Germany,  France,  Russia, 
and  the  United  States.     The  above  table  shows  what 


200     THE   GROWTH    OF   THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

each  of  the  great  powers  paid  in  1909  to  keep  up  their 
armies  and  navies. 

We  see  that  Great  Britain  has  to  pay  more  than  any 
of  the  others,  although  her  population  is  lower  than  all 
except  France.  Every  year  the  weight  grows  heavier 
and  heavier ;  in  1910  it  was  almost  double  what  it  was 
in  1890,  only  twenty  years  before.  Up  to  1909  Great 
Britain  had  borne  nearly  the  whole  of  this  great  burden, 
but,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Dominions  have  now  grown 
up,  and  are  beginning  to  come  forward  to  take  their 
share  in  the  common  defence  of  the  Empire. 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  EMPIRE 

a  It  is  not  to  be  thought  of  that  the  flood 
Of  British  freedom,  which,  to  the  open  sea 
Of  the  world's  praise,  from  dark  antiquity 
Hath  flowed,  '  with  pomp  of  waters,  unwithstood,' 
Roused  though  it  be  full  often  to  a  mood 
Which  spurns  the  check  of  salutary  bands, 
That  this  most  famous  Stream  in  bogs  and  sands 
Should  perish ;  and  to  evil  and  to  good 
Be  lost  for  ever.     In  our  halls  is  hung 
Armoury  of  the  invincible  knights  of  old  : 
We  must  be  free  or  die,  or  speak  the  tongue 
That  Shakespeare  spake  ;  the  faith  and  morals  hold 
Which  Milton  held.     In  everything  we  are  sprung 
Of  Earth's  first  blood,  have  titles  manifold." 

— Wordsworth. 

1.  So  now  we  have  followed  the  fortunes  of  the  British 
Empire  from  the  first  day  that  the  English  sailors  sallied 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  EMPIRE     201 

forth  into  unexplored  seas  in  search  of  adventure,  to 
the  time  when  almost  the  whole  world  is  divided  up 
among  a  few  great  powers.  The  sixteenth  century 
was  a  period  of  exploration,  when  the  English  were 
learning  about  the  outside  world,  and  were  gaining 
the  experience  of  seamanship  that  was  to  stand  them 
in  good  stead  later  on.  The  seventeenth  century 
was  the  period  of  settlement,  when  Englishmen  were 
exploring  the  newly  discovered  lands  across  the 
sea,  and  beginning  to  make  homes  in  them.  The 
eighteenth  century  was  the  period  of  trial,  when 
the  independence  of  the  Empire  was  threatened  by 
the  ambitions  of  France,  when  they  lost  America, 
and  when,  by  defeating  France  in  her  attempt  to 
become  the  ruler  of  the  world,  they  won  the  great 
Empire  which  they  now  possess.  The  nineteenth 
century  was  the  period  during  which  the  trade  and 
manufactures  of  the  British  Isles  became  strong  and 
vigorous,  and  the  colonies  grew  into  strong  self- 
governing  Dominions,  partners  in  the  Empire.  During 
this  time,  too,  the  dependencies  began  to  be  properly 
governed.  Torture,  civil  war,  injustice,  and  grinding 
taxation  were  abolished,  and  peace,  prosperity,  and 
justice  were  established  in  their  place.  And,  finally, 
we  have  seen  how,  at  the  opening  of  the  twentieth 
century,  other  peoples  are  rising  up  to  threaten  the 
safety  and  freedom  of  the  Empire  once  more,  and  how 
the  various  Dominions  are  beginning  to  meet  together 
to  arrange  how  best  to  defend  themselves  against  the 
common  danger. 

2.  How  is  it  that  there  has  been  this  steady  growth 
in  the  power  of  the  British  Empire  when  so  many  other 


202     THE   GROWTH   OF   THE   BRITISH   EMPIRE 

attempts  to  found  an  empire  have  failed  ?  There  are 
three  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  the  reason 
that  we  have  read  of  so  often  in  this  book — that  the 
British  never  relaxed  in  their  determination  to  keep  the 
command  of  the  sea.  So  long  as  the  navy  was  supreme 
the  commerce  of  the  Empire  feared  no  attack,  and  the 
great  sea-road  which  joined  all  the  parts  to  one  another 
was  safe.  But  if  another  navy  were  to  become  stronger 
than  the  British  navy  commerce  would  no  longer  be 
secure,  and  the  sea,  instead  of  being  a  highway,  would 
be  a  vast  barrier  separating  each  part  of  the  Empire 
from  every  other.  Therefore  the  British  people,  like 
all  great  nations,  have  always  been  ready  to  make 
whatever  sacrifices  were  needed  in  men  and  money 
to  preserve  themselves  and  their  possessions  from 
foreign  attack.  Sea-power — which  the  other  peoples 
so  often  neglected — always  has  been  one  of  the  great 
secrets  of  the  success  of  the  British  Empire. 

3.  In  the  second  place,  the  Empire  has  been  built 
up  on  the  principle  that  people  fit  for  self-government 
should  be  allowed  to  manage  their  own  affairs.  It  was 
in  England  that  the  system  of  Parliamentary  govern- 
ment was  first  devised  by  which  the  English  came  to 
govern  themselves  instead  of  being  governed  by  others. 
The  English,  too,  were  the  first  to  put  into  practice  the 
idea  that  every  man  should  be  allowed  to  choose  his 
own  method  of  living,  so  long  as  he  obeyed  the  law  and 
did  not  interfere  with  his  neighbour.  It  was  because 
this  liberty  and  this  system  of  responsible  government 
were  transplanted  to  the  Dominions  that  they  have  be- 
come strong  daughter-nations  instead  of  separate 
peoples.     And  it  is  because  the   British   Empire   has 


THE   FUTURE  OF  THE   EMPIRE  203 

been  the  freest  and  best -governed  land  in  the  world 
that  all  its  citizens  have  striven  so  hard  to  defend  it. 

4.  In  the  third  place,  the  Empire  brings  the  same 
freedom  and  justice  to  the  black  and  brown  people 
in  the  dependencies  as  to  the  white  people  in  the 
Dominions.  One  of  England's  greatest  achievements 
was  the  abolition  of  slavery.  In  1807  it  was  made  a 
crime  for  any  British  sailor  to  take  part  in  the  cruel 
slave-trade,  and  in  1833  all  slaves  throughout  the 
British  Dominions  were  declared  to  be  free.  This  great 
example  has  since  been  copied  by  the  whole  of  the 
civilised  world.  After  that,  as  we  have  seen,  law, 
order,  and  justice  were  established  among  the  oppressed 
millions  in  India  and  Africa.  These  people  were  not 
yet  sufficiently  civilised  to  be  able  to  govern  themselves, 
and  for  the  first  time  in  history  they  were  governed 
in  their  own  interests,  and  not  mainly  in  the  interests 
of  their  rulers.  England  has  never  drawn  any  revenues 
from  her  dependencies  to  spend  upon  her  own  affairs, 
and  great  numbers  of  men  and  women  have  devoted 
their  lives — as  civil  servants,  doctors,  and  missionaries 
— to  civilising  the  backward  peoples  living  under  the 
Union  Jack,  so  that  in  time  to  come  they  may  be  able 
to  govern  themselves.  In  consequence,  of  all  the  great 
empires  of  the  world  the  British  Empire  has  been  the 
least  troubled  by  the  rebellion  of  subject  peoples. 

5.  What  the  future  will  be  no  one  can  tell.  For  a 
century  the  British  Empire  has  been  the  greatest  and 
the  freest  power  in  the  world.  It  would  be  one  of  the 
greatest  disasters  of  history  if  the  British  Empire  were 
to  break  to  pieces.  Within  it  one-fourth  of  the  popu- 
lation on  the  globe  are  well  governed  and  are  kept  at 


204     THE   GBQFTH   OF  THE   BRITISH    EMPIRE 

peace  with  one  another,  and  protected  from  the  assaults 
of  foreign  enemies.  But  the  easy  times  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  have  passed  by,  and,  as  we  have  seen, 
new  dangers  have  begun  to  arise. 

6.  But  the  Empire  will  never  fail  if  its  citizens  in 
the  future  follow  the  example  of  the  great  men  who 
built  it  up  in  the  past. 

" .  .  ,  Giant  men 
Who  shackled  the  careering  centuries 
To  one  small  island's  name." 

They  must  love  peace  and  avoid  aggression,  but  they 
must  also  love  their  country,  and  be  ready  to  defend  it 
with  the  last  drop  of  blood  in  their  veins  and  the  last 
penny  in  their  purses.  They  must  love  justice  and  up- 
hold it  throughout  all  their  Dominions.  They  must 
love  freedom,  and  see  that  nowhere  in  their  possessions 
is  any  human  being  unjustly  deprived  of  his  liberty. 
They  must  not  shrink  from  the  burden  of  guarding  and 
uplifting  the  people  who  look  to  the  Union  Jack  for 
protection  from  injustice  and  oppression.  If  its  citizens 
are  true  to  their  great  traditions,  true  to  the  spirit  of 
their  institutions,  true  to  their  own  honour  and  self- 
respect,  the  Empire  will  be  in  no  danger.  Despite  all 
trials  and  dangers  it  will  continue  in  the  future  as  it 
has  been  in  the  past,  one  of  the  noblest  achievements 
in  the  history  of  mankind. 

u  We  sailed  wherever  ships  could  sail, 
We  founded  many  a  mighty  state ; 
Pray  God  our  greatness  may  not  fail 
Through  craven  fear  of  being  great." 


Printed  by  Ballantyne,  Hanson  <&*  Co. 
Edinburgh  £r>  Londou 


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